The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. Followed by Weather.
Ammar Haj Ahmad reads Aeham Ahmad’s dramatic account of how he risked his life playing music under siege in Damascus.
After being caught by President Assad’s forces trying to flee Syria with his wife and two small children, Aeham and his family have miraculously been freed from prison. But then he has to make an agonising choice:
"It was heartbreaking, but my decision was made: I had to leave Syria, I was too well known to the authorities to survive if I stayed. But I couldn’t take my wife and kids on such a hellish journey. If I made it to Europe in one piece, I’d do everything in my power to have them join me. But if something happened to me – well, at least my family would live."
In his desperation, Aeham employs a people smuggler to get him out of Syria and across the border into Turkey.
"Suddenly, we see a group of maybe 20 people dashing out of the woods and breaking into a sprint. Four men are carrying an old woman on a stretcher. The soldiers notice them and start yelling at them to stop. They get stuck in the ditch. It’s impossible to keep going, not with the old lady. The soldiers open fire. Two men are shot in the leg. We start running as well. And in all the turmoil, we manage to get across the border."
But that’s not the most dangerous part of his journey – he still has to face the crossing from Izmir to Lesbos in a flimsy, overcrowded dinghy.
The Pianist of Yarmouk is read by Ammar Haj Ahmad, who trained as an actor before fleeing the conflict in Syria. He recently starred in the critically acclaimed play The Jungle, set in the notorious Calais refugee camp, in London and New York.
A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day with Ann Memmott. Ann is a national and international adviser on autism, and main author of autism guidelines for the Church of England.
The days ahead bring us Mothering Sunday, and Autism Acceptance Week. With perhaps 1 in 30 of our population being autistic, you may already share life with autistic people, like me. Maybe as friends, colleagues, prayer partners or faith leaders, family members, artists, musicians or craftspeople. Those are some of the many ways in which autistic people contribute to family life, community, places of faith and workplaces.
Until very recently, so little was known about autism. When I wrote the first version of the national autism guidelines for the Church of England, there were myths that we were all lively young boys, or all living in care homes, perhaps. It has been such a joy to see understanding and acceptance of God’s much loved autistic people growing each year. Autistic people are women as well as men, older as well as young ones. All people with a different way of communicating, and of encountering the world through the senses.
As we approach Mothering Sunday, what of autistic mothers? After 10 years of not using spoken language as a child, and a gradual journey towards all I now do, I am honoured to be a mum to a fabulous autistic son. In the UK, we have thousands of autistic mothers, and indeed autistic parents & carers of all kinds. Many bringing up their young families with love, dedication and determination, watching their children grow and thrive. Do we enable and accept them?
Loving God, on this Mothering Sunday weekend, we ask that you guide and support all mothers, enabling them to gain strength from you, cherishing all that their children will bring to the world, as young people deserving to be fully loved, and fully themselves.
iPM's second programme from Islay, after listener Chris suggested the Hebridean island for an outside broadcast.
What's it like for the younger residents of the island? What makes non-Ileachs choose to move there? And what about the families who've been there for generations?
Plus, a bumper edition of our Your News bulletin, read by iPM favourites Martha Kearney, Paddy O'Connell, Jane Garvey and Simon Mayo.
Presented by Luke Jones. Produced by Cat Farnsworth.
The latest news headlines. Including the weather and a look at the papers.
Clare is walking to a land-based lighthouse on today’s Ramblings. Smeaton’s Tower was originally on the Eddystone Reef, twelve miles out to sea on Plymouth Sound but when it was replaced by a new structure in 1882, the Tower was moved onshore and now stands on Plymouth Hoe. Tom Nancollas is Clare’s guide. He has written a book - Seashaken Houses - which tells of his passion for lighthouses and their many extraordinary stories. Also joining them on the walk is Tom’s friend Michael O’Mahony. He joined Tom on two of his research trips to lighthouses, which, as he recalls, ended in an undignified fashion!
On their walk, Tom discusses his fascination for lighthouses and a strange family coincidence that emerged unexpectedly during his research: he discovered an ancestor had visited Smeaton’s Tower before him – as part of the team who dismantled the tower and moved it to the mainland.
They start their walk by the Devonport Column, take in interesting parts of Plymouth and its coastline and end at the distinctive red and white 'winning post' of Smeaton's Tower itself.
If you're reading this on the Radio 4 webpage, you can scroll down to the 'related links' section to find out more, including about Tom's book.
It’s 25 years since the film Bhaji on the Beach which looked at the challenges facing British Asian women, such as arranged marriage, divorce, sexism, and the pressure to conform. Now Yasmeen Khan takes three sets of South Asian mothers and daughters to the coast to find out if if the problems and concerns have changed.
As the women travel to their picnic by the sea in a minibus, we hear their stories.
Balwinder was born and brought up in Glasgow and drives a taxi. She was raised in a strict Sikh family and at the age of eighteen her parents arranged her marriage. “With Mum and Dad it was just, ‘You don’t need to study, you don’t need to worry about work, because the only thing you’re going to be doing is getting married.’”
Five years ago, Balwinder’s husband advised her to start taxi driving to support their family after his minor heart attack. “No, we’re Asian we don’t’ do things like that!” was Balwinder’s initial response. She now loves it and claims it’s given her far more confidence.
Balwinder’s 23 year old daughter Priya works in a call centre and is saving up to travel and see the world. She has made it clear an arranged marriage isn’t for her.
Shareefa was a social worker for nineteen years and, at an age when many people would be long into retirement, she’s still dedicating a lot of her time to community work. A Muslim, she came to Britain from Pakistan when she was in her twenties. Her family were very supportive and encouraged her to get a university education. She began challenging stereotypes as soon as she arrived. Her daughter Farzana has learned a lot from her Mum. She feels it’s important to learn to adapt and make changes where necessary. Farzana had an arranged marriage which she describes as “very, very, very unhappy”. She says the self-respect which she got from her parents, gave her the strength to get a divorce.
Reena grew up on her family’s tea plantation in Darjeeling and had very little say over her future. At the age of 16 her mother decided she should be married and soon after she joined her husband living in a small bedsit in London’s East End. Away from the influence of her mother, Reena rebelled and fully embraced the swinging sixties. She cut her hair short and wore mini dresses.
Her daughter Mimi, has taken on her Mum’s rebellion and works as a District Councillor supporting women and fighting causes she feels strongly about. She was recently given an OBE for her community work.
Produced by Kim Normanton.
Correspondents around the world tell their stories and examine news developments in their region
Money Box reporter Dan Whitworth analyses the main findings from the administrator’s report into London Capital & Finance. The high-risk mini-bond provider collapsed in January but not before it had taken £236m from 11,650 people. Many of them were first-time investors who thought their money was going into fixed rate ISAs. The cash they put in came from pensions, inheritances and life savings.
From April the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) limit for regulated investments rises to £85,000 from the current £50,000. Guest Mark Neale, Chief Executive of the FSCS.
NHS consultant James Bailey explains how the annual allowance taper affects his finances and working life. The taper was introduced in 2016 and affects people with income over £150,000 including pension savings. For every £2 of income over £150,000, the annual allowance reduces by £1, to a minimum of £10,000 a year. If an individual’s income is less that £110,000 a year, excluding all pension savings, then the annual allowance taper doesn't apply. Guests: Josephine Cumbo Pensions Correspondent for the Financial Times and John Ralfe, an Independent Pensions Consultant.
As this year’s Council Tax bills arrive, are you eligible to reduce yours with a discount, exemption or help from a Council Tax Reduction scheme? Guest: Caroline Siarkiewicz,, Director and debt advice expert at the Single Financial Guidance Body.
This week we hold a series of indicative votes with no clear outcome - Zoe Lyons looks at 29th March through history, Lucy Porter explores NASA spacewalks and Rachel Parris finds a new Brexit hero.
Written by the cast with additional material from Gareth Gwynn, Catherine Brinkworth, Kat Sadler, Mike Shepherd and Zoe Tomalin,
Jonathan Dimbleby presents political debate from Dover Castle Keep with the journalist and commentator Alastair Campbell, the crossbench peer Lord Hennessy, the Director of the Institute for Government Bronwen Maddox and the former Chair of Vote Leave Gisela Stuart who is now Chair of Wilton Park, an executive agency of the UK Foreign Office dedicated to conflict resolution in international relations.
Mathew Baynton, Andrew Buchan and Toby Jones star in an energetic new production of the play that made Tom Stoppard's reputation overnight in 1967. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Hamlet's ill-fated attendant lords, condemned to an existence in the wings, with no control over their own destinies.
Music arranged and performed by Clare Salaman, Philip Hopkins and Amelia Shakespeare from The Society of Strange and Ancient Instruments
The sounds of casting, chiming, singing and clanging are fused together to make a magical sound track to the story of how meat cleavers have been used as musical instruments for over 300 years..
Growing up in Suffolk, Nathaniel Mann, heard stories passed down by his grandma about a tradition of the village Rough Band, made up of pots and pans, iron and metal implements, including meat cleavers - delivering a sort of sonic warning to anyone stepping out of line, committing adultery or behaving in way considered unacceptable.
As part of the Avant-Folk trio 'Dead Rat Orchestra', Mann, a singer and composer, has long been playing music with strange percussive instruments.
Coming across an old meat cleaver in his dad's garage he was inspired to make a set of cleavers to play music on - so turned to a bronze bladesmith to help turn meat cleavers into musical gold.
In a chance discovery, he discovered the idea wasn't new - and so he sought out Jeremy Barlow, author of “The Enraged Musician”, to find out the coded messages of Hogarth’s musical prints, including marrow bones and meat cleavers.
He also visits BathIRON 2018, as a new bandstand is being cast for the city of Bath, and gets the chance to conduct and sing with an orchestra of master smiths.
The freshly cast meat cleaver is finally used in one of the Nest Collective's Campfire Concerts, where the Dead Rat Orchestra join a trio of female folk musicians from Poland - Sutari - who have developed their own parallel world of Rough Music.
A joyful celebration, some nail biting forging, and some entrancing music. You've never heard cleavers like this before....
The former Prime Minister of New Zealand Helen Clark, tells us about her recent work with the Children’s Charity World Vision where she’s been working to help eradicate child marriage in Afghanistan.
Maths anxiety is real and one in ten children suffer from despair and rage when faced with the subject. We hear from Kayla Fuller who suffered from maths anxiety at school and from Lucy Rycroft Smith a research and communications officer at Cambridge mathematics.
Are our cultural attitudes to women and pain standing in the way of effective treatments? Katy Vincent Senior Pain Fellow at the Nuffield Department of Women’s and Reproductive Health at the University of Oxford discusses.
Sonia Purnell tells us about Virginia Hall, an American turned British spy who overcame a lost leg to become a legend in espionage and guerrilla warfare.
We hear from Julie Morgan the deputy minister for Health and Social Services in the Welsh Assembly on why she is fighting to ban smacking children in Wales.
Who were the five female victims of Jack the Ripper? Hallie Rubenhold tells us about her new book The Five and the women’s real stories.
Every business faces uncertainty. In the final programme of the series Evan Davis and guests ask what businesses should do when faced with uncertainty.
Will Young, Francesca Simon, Zawe Ashton, Murray Lachlan Young, Lee Fields, Leyla McCalla, Nikki Bedi, Clive Anderson
Clive Anderson and Nikki Bedi are joined by singer Will Young, actress Zawe Ashton, children's author Francesca Simon and poet Murray Lachlan Young for an eclectic mix of conversation, music and comedy. With music from Lee Fields and The Expressions and Leyla McCalla.
An insight into the character of an influential person making the news headlines
Dumbo, Grief is the Thing with Feathers, Van Gogh and Britain, Ewan Morrison, Sean Scully
Disney's latest live action remake of one of their classic cartoons is Dumbo, reimagined by Tim Burton. Grief Is The Thing With Feathers was a novel by max Porter and has now been adapted for the stage by Enda Walsh and starring Cillian Murphy. It has just opened at the Barbican in London. Vincent Van Gogh lived in London for a few years and tate Britain is staging an Exhibition Van Gogh and and Britain looking at the artists who influenced him , his own work and artists who have been influenced. Ewan Morrison's novel Nina X is a kidnap story about a young girl who was kidnapped and brainwashed by a Maoist cult before being rescued and rehabilitated. British artist Sean Scully is one of Britain's richest artists and on BBC2's Arena has followed him for a year around the world
Tom Sutcliffe's guests are John Tusa, Deborah Moggach and Alex Preston. The producer is Oliver Jones
From her influential government reports which led to changes in special education and to the establishment of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority, to her career as an academic, author and mother of five, the philosopher Baroness Mary Warnock meets her younger self in the BBC sound archive and discusses her reaction to what she hears with John Wilson.
Michael Butt's dramatisation of Penelope Fitzgerald's 1979 Booker Prize-winning novel is set amongst a small community of eccentric barge-dwellers on the River Thames. Nenna and her two daughters have tricky decisions to make.
The Sackler Trust has suspended new charitable donations in the UK, following claims that the Sackler family billions are linked to the opioid crisis in the US. The family denies the allegations, but both the National Portrait Gallery and the Tate group have refused its money. Whether that money is tainted or not (the question is hotly disputed) the controversy raises important questions about the ethics of funding for the arts, sport and philanthropic charities. Purists believe that good causes should always refuse money from bad sources, no matter how much potential benefit that money could bring. More grateful recipients hold their begging bowl with one hand and their nose with the other, insisting that there is no such thing as dirty money because a coin is morally neutral; whatever real, perceived or alleged crimes may have been committed to earn it should not rest on the conscience of the recipient. How should we view this quest for moral purity? It does appear that society is becoming increasingly intolerant of moral grey areas. It’s a short step from turning down dodgy donors to ‘no platforming’ those with unfashionable opinions. Perhaps that’s a good thing, an inspiring translation of principles into action predicated on equality and justice for all. Or perhaps such thinking is a new form of secular puritanism which is intolerant and dangerous. When does the enforcement of moral principles make us better? When does the attempt to resist moral pollution become its own form of rules-based bigotry?
What shape are the twelve identical faces of a dodecahedron? What was the name of the politician played by Paul Eddington in Yes, Minister? What type of establishment was founded by the Scottish emigre Allan Pinkerton in Chicago in 1850?
Russell Davies is back for the 2019 season of Brain of Britain, putting these and many other general knowledge questions to the first batch of contenders. Across the next few months 48 competitors will face heats and semi-final knockout stages, before the 2019 title is decided at the Final in July. The competitors come from all corners of the UK and have already made it through a rigorous audition process to win their places in the series.
Each week there'll be a chance for a listener to win a prize in the Beat the Brains challenge, in which the competitors pool their knowledge to tackle the listeners' questions.
Sabrina Mahfouz, British Egyptian poet, playwright, performer and writer, has been called a modern Renaissance woman. She reveals more about her life through her favourite pieces of writing, by authors as diverse as Debbie Tucker Green, Jeffrey Boakye, Laura Dockrill, Allan Ahlberg, Anthony Anaxagorou and Euripides. Recorded in front of an audience at the BBC Radio Theatre with reader Ntonga Mwanza.
SUNDAY 31 MARCH 2019
SUN 00:00 Midnight News (m0003snx)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. Followed by Weather.
SUN 00:30 Short Works (m0003jwk)
The Cousin Clairvoyant
An original short story specially commissioned by BBC Radio 4 by the Northern Irish writer Colin Carberry. As read by Aaron McCusker (Bohemian Rhapsody, Women On The Verge.)
Colin Carberry is a writer of screenplays and fiction from Belfast. With Glenn Patterson, he co-wrote the film 'Good Vibrations' for which the pair won Best Script at the 2013 Irish Writers Guild Awards and were nominated for Outstanding Debut at the 2014 BAFTA Film awards. His previous writing for Radio 4 includes the stories 'If I Only Had The Nerve' and 'Second Class, Signed For.'
Writer ….. Colin Carberry
Reader ….. Aaron McCusker
Producer ….. Michael Shannon
SUN 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m0003snz)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping
SUN 02:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m0003sp1)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.
SUN 05:20 Shipping Forecast (m0003sp3)
The latest shipping forecast
SUN 05:30 News Briefing (m0003sp5)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4
SUN 05:43 Bells on Sunday (m0003sp7)
Bells on Sunday comes from Sheffield Cathedral
Time now for Bells on Sunday, which comes from Sheffield Cathedral. Formerly the parish church of St Peter, the tower had a ring of four bells as long ago as 1559. By 1745 it held eight, with the present ring of twelve being cast in 1970. Regarded as one of the finest products of the Whitechapel Bell Foundry, the sound has been improved by the use of a wooden-shafted clapper in the thirty four hundredweight tenor. The method we hear is Yorkshire Surprise Maximus, by the Sheffield Cathedral Company of Ringers.
SUN 05:45 Lent Talks (m0003jj7)
The Uncertainty of Jesus
"Father, if you are willing, please take this cup of suffering away from me." Author Dr Bex Lewis draws on Jesus’ Agony in the Garden of Gethsemane as she describes her experience of being diagnosed with cancer.
Producer: Dan Tierney
SUN 06:00 News Headlines (m0003sy1)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4.
SUN 06:05 Something Understood (m0003sy3)
The Unexpected
Rabbi Dr Harvey Belovski explores attitudes towards the unexpected, and argues we should view the astonishing and surprising as a gift of guidance.
Rabbi Harvey considers what it means to occupy the space between predictability and the unconscious desire to experience the excitement of the unknown. He draws upon the popularity of Roald Dahl’s Tales Of The Unexpected to demonstrate our unspoken yearning for the surprising.
He also explores the kindness and joy that can lie within applications of the unexpected. He uses Jack Riemer’s story of a rabbi receiving the same good news from multiple well-wishers, in order to examine the positive side of the surprising. He also reads one of Shakespeare’s most famous verses from Twelfth Night, to explore the way the unexpected can imbue individuals with greatness, despite it being thrust upon them.
In conclusion, Rabbi Harvey considers the way the unexpected can be perceived as a divine steer, and resolves to seize upon the surprising in order to channel it in the best way possible.
Presenter: Harvey Belovski
Producer: Oliver Seymour
A TBI production for BBC Radio 4
SUN 06:35 Living World (m0003sy5)
Cuddy Ducks
The eider duck, known locally as "Cuddy's" duck, is regarded as the first bird in the world to have been given conservation protection, when St Cuthbert offered the eider duck sanctuary on the Farne Islands in the seventh century. Today, they breed in vast numbers off the Northumbrian coast, and Brett Westwood travels to Amble harbour to see the duck's colourful breeding plumage, and listen to the famous "crooning" calls of the males in the company of the RSPB's Paul Morrison and biologist Hilary Broker-Carey
Since the programme was first broadcast the eider duck has been part of a discussion on Marine Conservation Zones. Wildlife presenter Lindsey Chapman revisits this Living World from 2002 before bringing the story up to date for today's audience.
Producer Andrew Dawes
SUN 06:57 Weather (m0003sy7)
The latest weather forecast.
SUN 07:00 News and Papers (m0003sy9)
The latest news headlines. Including a look at the papers.
SUN 07:10 Sunday (m0003syc)
Brexit Alliance, Dalai Lama, Muslim Music Awards
Sunday morning religious news and current affairs programme, presented by William Crawley
SUN 07:54 Radio 4 Appeal (m0003rjw)
Book Aid International
Ben Okri makes the Radio 4 Appeal on behalf of Book Aid International.
To Give:
- Freephone 0800 404 8144
- Freepost BBC Radio 4 Appeal. (That’s the whole address. Please do not write anything else on the front of the envelope). Mark the back of the envelope ‘Book Aid International’.
- Cheques should be made payable to ‘Book Aid International’.
Registered Charity Number: 313869
SUN 07:57 Weather (m0003syf)
The latest weather forecast.
SUN 08:00 News and Papers (m0003syh)
The latest news headlines. Including a look at the papers.
SUN 08:10 Sunday Worship (m0003syk)
Invitation to family
Rachel Gardner, President of the Girls’ Brigade, England and Wales, and a director of the charity Youthscape, preaches this Mothering Sunday live from One Church Brighton as Radio 4's worship services continue their journey through Lent. In an increasingly divided society the bible calls individuals, churches and communities to build bridges between loneliness and belonging - this week, through the invitation to contribute to the life of the family. As the mother of two adopted children Rachel takes the words of Jesus to his mother and the disciple John from the cross, committing them to each others' care, and applies them to family and community today. Reading: John
19.25–27. Leader: Dave Steell; Music leader: Stuart Townend. Producer: Andrew Earis. A link to resources for individuals and groups can be downloaded from the Sunday Worship web pages.
SUN 08:48 A Point of View (m0003jx6)
Brexit: Failure to compromise
John Gray reflects on where British politics goes from here.
"Whether Brexit is a good or bad idea," he writes, "is no longer the central issue that Britain is facing."
"Instead, the question is whether our political system can survive the damage a mishandled Brexit has inflicted on it."
Producer: Adele Armstrong
SUN 08:58 Tweet of the Day (m0003sym)
Satish Kumar and the Peacock
Satush Kumar was born in Rajasthan, India, where the Peacock, the Mayura, is a sacred bird and also associated with the monsoon. In India, it is believed that after the long, hot summer peacocks come out and display their bright and vibrant feathers in an extravagant dance to please Indra, the god of rain, before calling to let the rains begin, bringing relief to plants, animals, soils and humans.
You can hear more from Satish in the second Tweet of the Week Omnibus editions available on the Radio 4 website. Aside from choosing his personal birds for the Omnibus, Satish's thoughts and teachings reflect in his recent writing on elegant simplicity, something which maybe the western world has become disconnected from, yet nature is all around us.
Producer : Andrew Dawes
Image : Copyright Resurgence Magazine
SUN 09:00 Broadcasting House (m0003syp)
Sunday morning magazine programme with news and conversation about the big stories of the week. Presented by Paddy O'Connell.
SUN 10:00 The Archers Omnibus (m0003syr)
Writer ….. Caroline Harrington
Director ….. Marina Caldarone
Editor ….. Jeremy Howe
Jill Archer .... Patricia Greene
Josh Archer ..... Angus Imrie
Jolene Archer ..... Buffy Davis
Tony Archer .... David Troughton
Pat Archer .... Patricia Gallimore
Tom Archer .... William Troughton
Toby Fairbrother .... Rhys Bevan
Alan Franks .... John Telfer
Clarrie Grundy .... Heather Bell
Will Grundy .... Philip Molloy
Emma Grundy .... Emerald O'Hanrahan
Ed Grundy .... Barry Farrimond
Shula Hebden Lloyd .... Judy Bennett
Alistair Lloyd ..... Michael Lumsden
Adam Macy .... Andrew Wincott
Elizabeth Pargetter .... Alison Dowling
Freddie Pargetter .... Toby Laurence
Lily Pargetter .... Katie Redford
Natasha .... Mali Harries
Russ ..... Andonis James Anthony
Tim Oatey .... Carl Prekopp
Leonard Berry .... Paul Copley
Doug .... David Seddon
SUN 11:15 Desert Island Discs (m0003rlf)
Martin Freeman, actor
Martin Freeman is a multi-award winning actor, best known for his roles as the lovable Tim in BBC Two’s The Office and as Dr Watson to Benedict Cumberbatch’s Sherlock Holmes. He also played Bilbo Baggins in Peter Jackson’s Hobbit trilogy, Lester Nygaard in the US drama series Fargo and Everett K Ross in the film Black Panther.
Born in Hampshire in 1971, he grew up in Teddington in south-west London. The youngest of five children, he was just 10 when his father died of a heart attack. As a teenager, he played competitive squash, making the national squad, until he realised he lacked the necessary killer instinct required and switched to youth theatre.
He studied at the Central School of Speech and Drama and left in his third year to work at the National Theatre, playing minor roles. He first reached a wider audience when he was cast as Tim in The Office, which was broadcast from 2001 to 2003 and became the first British sitcom to win a Golden Globe. More screen roles followed, including playing Arthur Dent in the film of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. In 2010 he first appeared as Dr Watson opposite Benedict Cumberbatch’s Sherlock and went on to win both a BAFTA and an Emmy as Best Supporting Actor. He has continued to work in films, TV and on stage.
He appeared in Sherlock with his ex-partner Amanda Abbington. They have two children.
Presenter: Lauren Laverne
Producer: Cathy Drysdale
SUN 12:00 News Summary (m0003syt)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
SUN 12:04 Just a Minute (m0003jt6)
Series 83
Episode 8
Paul Merton, Jenny Eclair, Fern Britton and Gyles Brandreth join Nicholas Parsons for the panel game where the challenge is to speak without hesitation, repetition or deviation.
Produced by Matt Stronge
A BBC Studios Production
SUN 12:32 The Food Programme (m0003syw)
Life of Pie
One September Ella Risbridger tried to kill herself. She survived and left the hospital thinking about making a pie. When she got home, her partner persuaded her to make the pie, and it set Ella on a course to teach herself to cook. And in teaching herself to cook, she has taught herself to live.
This is a programme about pies. The pork pie of Pete Brown and his ‘soon-to-be-wife’ Liz’s first date in Barnsley market. The pies that Julie Jones made with her mother which helped to keep her calm after a dementia diagnosis. Pies crafted by chef Calum Franklin, inspired by the surroundings of his London childhood, and pies creating a new future for young Preston businessman Robert D'Orville. Sheila Dillon travels to hear these stories, and uncovers a pie story of her own.
Presented by Sheila Dillon.
Produced in Bristol by Clare Salisbury
SUN 12:57 Weather (m0003syy)
The latest weather forecast.
SUN 13:00 The World This Weekend (m0003sz0)
Global news and analysis; presented by Mark Mardell
SUN 13:30 An Alternative History of Mothering (m0003sz2)
Another year, another Mother's Day, and the usual celebration of the special love mothers have for their children. The overall message is that maternal love is powerful and instinctive, rooted in our biology, rather than our culture.
Historian Emma Griffin turns to history to debunk what she calls the Motherhood Myth. She explores how, despite constant efforts since the 18th century to insist that maternal love is as natural as sunshine, the reality is much more complex. Ideas about motherhood have changed over the past five hundred years, and so too have the actual emotions themselves.
Emma meets Jane Whittle, an Early Modernist from Exeter University, who studies a time in our culture when motherhood was not sentimentalised - both parents were expected to care for children in an extended family household and many were sent out to wet nurses until they were two or three years old. At this time, Britons had little sense of motherhood involving a particularly intense form of love and devotion.
At Audley End House, in the beautifully appointed Victorian nursery, Emma explores the emergence of new ideas about mothering and raising children, with commentary from historians Joanne Begiato and Jennie Batchelor.
She then visits the Southwell Workhouse in Nottinghamshire with Kate Gibson to explore how, while middle-class mothers were being increasingly idealised, mothers at the other end of the social scale were being separated from their children and judged to be ‘bad’ through their inability to provide appropriate care for them.
Rising living standards in the 20th century vastly improved child welfare and allowed society to create a narrative in which ‘bad’ mothers were an aberration - exceptions to the rule of selfless and devoted mothering. Emma speaks to leading child psychologist Laverne Antrobus at the Tavistock Centre in London to understand how attachment theory informs the way we approach the psychology of maternal relationships today, and how we might re-think our traditional view that mothers should be the principal providers of children’s emotional welfare.
Singing by Vivien Ellis
Readings by Will Huggins
Produced by Melissa FItzGerald
A Blakeway production for BBC Radio 4
SUN 14:00 Gardeners' Question Time (m0003jwh)
East Meon
Eric Robson and his panel of experts are in East Meon, Hampshire. Chris Beardshaw, Pippa Greenwood and Bob Flowerdew answer the horticultural questions.
The panellists discuss the best radishes, care tips for a sedum roof and Buddleia pruning. They also suggest ways to grow the best blueberries, offer advice for preventing ash dieback, and suggest ways to downsize a vegetable plot.
Away from the questions, Chris Beardshaw visits the nearby Leydene Estate. He speaks to local historian Michael Blakstad to learn all about the eccentric East Meon gardener, Eleanor, Countess Peel.
Produced by Dan Cocker
Assistant Producer: Hester Cant
A Somethin' Else production for BBC Radio 4
SUN 14:45 The Listening Project (m0003sz4)
Families- From a Male Perspective
Three conversations about different stages of family life from a male perspective. Fi Glover presents the omnibus edition of the series that proves it's surprising what you hear when you listen.
The Listening Project is a Radio 4 initiative that offers a snapshot of contemporary Britain in which people across the UK volunteer to have a conversation with someone close to them about a subject they've never discussed intimately before. The conversations are being gathered across the UK by teams of producers from local and national radio stations who facilitate each encounter. Every conversation - they're not BBC interviews, and that's an important difference - lasts up to an hour, and is then edited to extract the key moment of connection between the participants. Most of the unedited conversations are being archived by the British Library and used to build up a collection of voices capturing a unique portrait of the UK in the second decade of the millennium. You can learn more about The Listening Project by visiting bbc.co.uk/listeningproject
Producer: Mohini Patel
SUN 15:00 Drama (m0003sz6)
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead
Part 2
Mathew Baynton, Andrew Buchan and Toby Jones star in Tom Stoppard's much-loved play about Hamlet's ill-fated attendant lords. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern attempt to discover what roles they are meant to play, in an existence that appears to offer them no control.
Directed by Emma Harding
Rosencrantz.....Mathew Baynton
Guildenstern.....Andrew Buchan
The Player.....Toby Jones
Tragedian.....Sam Dale
Alfred.....Ronny Jhutti
Ophelia.....Sarah Ovens
Polonius.....Michael Bertenshaw
Hamlet.....Parth Thakerar
Claudius.....Don Gilet
Gertrude.....Clare Corbett
Music arranged and performed by Clare Salaman, Philip Hopkins and Amelia Shakespeare from The Society of Strange and Ancient Instruments
SUN 16:00 Open Book (m0003rjy)
Taylor Jenkins Reid, Older Characters in Fiction, Baseball books
American author Taylor Jenkins Reid talks about her latest novel Daisy Jones & The Six. A fictional biography of a fictional band, the book charts the turbulent relationships, both on and off stage, of a group of musicians in the late 70s who bare an uncanny resemblance to Fleetwood Mac.
Why are older characters so often either invisible or caricatured in fiction? Paul Bailey and Emma Healey discuss books which depict old age in a sensitive, humorous or more nuanced way.
An unusual Reading Clinic, in which a caller seeks suggestions for a penpal in Texas on death-row. Benjamin Markovits recommends books about baseball and thrilling Westerns.
And an Editor's Tip with Virago Chair Lennie Goodings, who is captivated by new social history about Victorian life and pleasure.
SUN 16:30 Another Swansea Poet (m0003sz8)
Jack Jones is a spoken word poet and the lead singer of Welsh alternative rock band Trampolene, a band on the rise, who have attracted the attention of The Libertines, Liam Gallagher, John Cooper Clarke and Caitlin Moran.
Jack’s spoken word poetry and lyrics are at the core of Trampolene’s sound. The music isn’t everything though. Sometimes Jack takes the mic, solo, and recites poetry: risky business in a room full of screaming, moshing fans, you might think.
But Jack’s spoken word poetry has become an integral part of Trampolene’s gigs. The crowd shouts for his poem ‘Pound Land’ in every venue and recites Jack’s words along with him.
He writes about everyday life, how to fight adversity, his upbringing, and at gigs around the UK offers his own social commentary on the world, all delivered with a gentle Swansea lilt synonymous with his idol Dylan Thomas.
From his home in the Mumbles, Swansea, Jack tells his life story candidly, with insight from around him. We hear from his fellow band members, Wayne Thomas and Rob Steele, and from one of Jack’s biggest fans in the music industry, Peter Doherty, who recalls their adventures on tour together. Jack also talks to Caitlin Moran, who came across him living in his car in London and invited him to stay in the attic in her house.
This programme reveals a young man in his twenties with a lot to say about the world; a young man with multiple health problems, Dyslexia and huge amounts of time spent out of school, who hasn’t let that stop him from making a career out of writing and performing poetry and music.
Producer: Eleri Llian Rees for BBC Cymru Wales
SUN 17:00 Going to Town (m0003d71)
In politics and in the national psyche, towns have long been sidelined by cities. Many feel that towns have been disproportionately affected by austerity, due to an urban-centric model that guides policy and the negative repercussions of globalisation and technological change.
But almost half of the UK's population lives in towns and, as the Brexit referendum revealed, towns have the power to shape the country's future.
Wigan has many markers of struggle — post-industrial decline, poverty, an ageing population — but it is upending the narrative of despair that often surrounds towns. When austerity cuts were implemented nearly a decade ago, Wigan council was among the worst hit and it had no choice but to do things differently and shift power into the hands of the community. In the years since, the town has seen improved health and economic indicators, and a more engaged citizenry.
Professor of Politics Anand Menon asks if Wigan offers a way forward for towns across the UK. And is it time to pay attention to towns as distinct types of places - both as sweet spots for understanding political change, and as laboratories for social policy?
Producer: Meara Sharma
Executive Producer: Peggy Sutton
A Somethin’ Else production for BBC Radio 4
SUN 17:40 Profile (m0003snn)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Saturday]
SUN 17:54 Shipping Forecast (m0003szb)
The latest shipping forecast.
SUN 17:57 Weather (m0003szd)
The latest weather forecast.
SUN 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m0003szg)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
SUN 18:15 Pick of the Week (m0003szj)
Adrian Goldberg
It’s a globetrotting edition of Pick Of The Week with Adrian Goldberg as we travel to Syria, Venice China, Norway, Ukraine, and Liverpool.
There’s an amazing story about a young disabled man who couldn’t leave his flat for ten years but found friendship online, and dealing with loss when celebrating a new arrival.
Plus there's music aplenty with a tribute to Ranking Roger, Clarke Peters on the history of Black music in Europe, and the French artist who’s written an album in memory of her dead cat.
You can always get in touch with Pick of the Week via email potw@bbc.co.uk
Producers: Stephen Garner and Dave James
SUN 19:00 The Archers (m0003szl)
Freddie makes his presence felt and Ben receives an offer.
SUN 19:15 Where's the F in News (m0003jsz)
Series 2
Episode 4
An energetic, intelligent female-anchored show with a female panel - using the events, trends and talking points they think should really be top of the news agenda in a series of fresh and funny challenges.
Host Jo Bunting is joined by a panel of women including Cariad Lloyd, Kiri Pritchard McLean, Emily Dean and Rosemary Shrager.
Jo Bunting is a producer and writer of topical comedy and satire, with credits including Have I Got News For You, the Great British Bake Off spin off show An Extra Slice with Jo Brand, and the successful topical chat show That Sunday Night Show presented by Adrian Chiles on ITV. Jo was a guest interviewer on Loose Ends for several years and a panellist on Loose Women.
An Avalon production for BBC Radio 4
SUN 19:45 Blood, Sweat and Tears (b05syb66)
The Hollow King
John Connolly, best known for his series of novels starring Charlie Parker, writes the final episode in a new series of specially commissioned short stories by three of Britain's top crime writers. 'The Hollow King' is a dark and gruesome fantasy tale about a childless King and Queen who possibly love each other too much.
These stories were recorded in front of an audience in the MCT theatre, Alleyns School, Dulwich - and introduced by Mark Billingham.
Read by Pennie Downie.
Producer: Celia de Wolff
A Pier production for BBC Radio 4
SUN 20:00 Feedback (m0003jwp)
Investigating Extremism on Radio 4
Roger Bolton hears listener views on a documentary investigating the role of women on the far-right, and discusses the BBC's annual plan.
Radio 4 documentary In The Right caused controversy this week, stirring debate from listeners over whether figures considered to be on the far-right should be given airtime. The programme, presented by journalist Lara Whyte, investigated young women in hardline right wing social media. Roger speaks with the producer of the programme Max O'Brien, and Radio 4's Editor of Editorial Standards Roger Mahony, about the issue of giving airtime to fringe, contentious voices.
Google podcast app users were annoyed this week when they found they could no longer listen to new BBC shows on the app, or on Google devices like smart speakers and phones. Caroline Crampton from HotPod discusses the reasons behind the BBC's decision to pull it's content from the platform.
Listeners have long shared their concerns that Radio 4 is pushing hard for younger listeners at the expense of older audiences. Meanwhile, cuts continue to be imposed on programme budgets and staff numbers. They're both issues that have come to the forefront as the BBC publishes its annual plan, setting priorities and budgets for the year. Colin Browne, Chairman of the Voice of the Listener and Viewer, spoke to Roger about how these changes are generating concern among license fee payers across the country.
Presenter: Roger Bolton
Producer: Robert Nicholson
Executive Producer: Will Yates
A Whistledown production for BBC Radio 4
SUN 20:30 Last Word (m0003jwm)
Baroness Warnock, William Hucklesby QPM, Rose Hilton, Professor Lord Bhattacharyya CBE FRS, Scott Walker
Pictured: Baroness Warnock
Matthew Bannister on
Baroness Warnock, the philosopher who set down the principles which govern human fertilisation treatment and embryo research.
William Hucklesby, the Police Commander who led the anti-terrorist branch at the time of the Hyde Park and Brighton bomb attacks.
Rose Hilton, the artist who put her career on hold to support her husband, but gained recognition after his death.
Professor Lord Bhattacharyya, who brought together academics and industrialists at the Warwick Manufacturing Group.
And Scott Walker, the chart-topping singer who moved into experimental music later in life.
Interviewed guest: Baroness Onora O’Neill
Interviewed guest: Sally Cheshire
Interviewed guest: Alex Hucklesby
Interviewed guest: Christopher Burke
Interviewed guest: Ian Collins
Interviewed guest: Professor Dave Mullins
Interviewed guest: Sir Vince Cable
Producer: Neil George
Archive clips from: Meeting Myself Coming Back: Mary Warnock, Radio 4 12/07/2014; Desert Island Discs, Radio 4 04/12/1988; The World Tonight, Radio 4 20/04/1984; PM, Radio 4 06/09/1982; BBC News 19/12/1983; Sound Archive: Brighton Press Conference, Radio 4 13/10/1984; Rose Hilton interviewed by Susan Marling, 2017 (not broadcast); Woman's Hour, Radio 4 05/04/2011; The Politics Show: West Midlands, BBC One 11/12/2011; Midlands Today, BBC One 09/12/2011; Scott Walker talks to Jarvis Cocker, 6 Music 2017; The Late Show, BBC Two 10/05/1995.
SUN 21:00 Money Box (m0003sml)
[Repeat of broadcast at
12:04 on Saturday]
SUN 21:25 Radio 4 Appeal (m0003rjw)
[Repeat of broadcast at
07:54 today]
SUN 21:30 Analysis (m0003jtp)
Will China and America go to war?
Will the growing competition between China and the United States inevitably lead to military conflict? One leading American academic created huge attention when in 2017 he posed the idea of what he called a "Thucydides Trap". Drawing on the work of the ancient Greek historian, he warned that when a rising power (Sparta) threatens an existing power (Athens) they are destined to clash, unless both countries change their policies. He warned that the same pattern could play out with the US and China. Since then, President Trump has engaged in combative rhetoric over trade, while China has fast been modernising and upgrading its military. BBC Diplomatic Correspondent Jonathan Marcus considers whether Washington and Beijing can escape the trap - or whether the growing economic, strategic and technological rivalry between the two nations will inevitably end in conflict.
Producer: Stuart Hughes
SUN 22:00 Westminster Hour (m0003szp)
Preview of the week's politics with politicians, pundits and experts.
SUN 23:00 The Moth Radio Hour (b0902nhp)
Series 5
Leaving, Loving and Coming Home
True stories told live in in the USA: Meg Bowles introduces tales about leaving, learning to love and yearning to be home.
The Moth is an acclaimed not-for-profit organisation dedicated to the art and craft of storytelling based in the USA. Since 1997, it has celebrated both the raconteur and the storytelling novice, who has lived through something extraordinary and yearns to share it. Originally formed by the writer George Dawes Green as an intimate gathering of friends on a porch in Georgia (where moths would flutter in through a hole in the screen), and then recreated in a New York City living room, The Moth quickly grew to produce immensely popular events at theatres and clubs around New York City and later around the USA, the UK and other parts of the world.
The Moth has presented more than 15,000 stories, told live and without notes, to standing-room-only crowds worldwide. The Moth podcast is downloaded over 27 million times a year.
Featuring true stories told live on stage without scripts, from the humorous to the heart-breaking.
The Moth Radio Hour is produced by Jay Allison and Atlantic Public Media in Woods Hole, Massachusetts and is distributed by the Public Radio Exchange.
SUN 23:50 A Point of View (m0003jx6)
[Repeat of broadcast at
08:48 today]
MONDAY 01 APRIL 2019
MON 00:00 Midnight News (m0003szs)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4.
MON 00:15 Thinking Allowed (m0003jhs)
Kitsch - Cute
Cute and kitsch - Simon May, visiting professor of philosophy at King’s College London, explores cuteness and its immense hold on us, from emojis and fluffy puppies to its more uncanny, subversive expressions. Also, the changing significance of kitsch, from garden gnomes to Eurotrash. Ruth Holliday, Professor of Gender and Culture at the University of Leeds, suggests that judgements of taste have shifted ground rather than relaxed. They’re joined by the cultural critic, Peter York.
Producer: Jayne Egerton
MON 00:45 Bells on Sunday (m0003sp7)
[Repeat of broadcast at
05:43 on Sunday]
MON 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m0003szv)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
MON 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m0003szx)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.
MON 05:20 Shipping Forecast (m0003szz)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
MON 05:30 News Briefing (m0003t01)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4
MON 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m0003t03)
A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day with Ann Memmott. Ann is a national and international adviser on autism, and main author of autism guidelines for the Church of England.
Good morning
Today, in many countries, it’s April Fools’ Day. A day on which many take delight in telling cheeky lies to others, to see if they are fooled for a short while. I’m sure we all have favourites from past years. I must admit that, as an autistic child, I was delighted to see a BBC broadcast of a 1957 example about spaghetti trees, and then of course disappointed to learn that there were in fact no such things. But I could also appreciate the humour. In the autistic communities, our sense of humour is often brilliant, to the astonishment of some who believed in the old myths about us being nothing but factual. It’s certainly true that autistic people like things to make sense. In autism acceptance week, I’m celebrating autistic literalness, that desire for words, and people, to mean what they say, that honesty and straightforwardness. What of those expressions used by so many people, like, “I’ll be back in five minutes”. Five minutes passes, and they haven’t returned. Ten minutes, still not back. Our language is littered with such extraordinary statements. Surprising indeed, and not just on April 1st.
The history of the Christian faith is one where people have been challenged to think again about those they consider less wise and powerful. We may know the passages in the Bible where Jesus said that people had to be like children to enter heaven, and the passages where we are told that every person is as vital, as much part of this One Body of Christ as the other. All are loved, and needed.
Creator God, teach us anew the value of each person around us. Appreciating the surprise of all they bring, in friendship and prayer, in fellowship and shared journeying.
Amen.
MON 05:45 Farming Today (m0003t05)
The latest news about food, farming and the countryside.
MON 05:56 Weather (m0003t07)
The latest weather forecast for farmers.
MON 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b03x45tq)
Ring Ouzel
Tweet of the Day is a series of fascinating stories about our British birds inspired by their calls and songs.
Bill Oddie presents the ring ouzel. Ring ouzels are related to blackbirds and because they nest in the uplands, they’re sometimes known as the ‘mountain blackbird’. The male ring ouzel is a handsome bird, sooty black with a broad white ring called a ‘gorget’ right across his chest that stands out like a beacon. Unfortunately these summer visitors are becoming harder to find even in their strongholds, which include the North York Moors and several Scottish and Welsh mountains.
MON 06:00 Today (m0003t9d)
News and current affairs, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.
MON 09:00 Start the Week (m0003t9g)
Free Thinking Festival
At the Free Thinking Festival at Sage, Gateshead Tom Sutcliffe presents a special edition exploring the art and science of communication. The American diplomat William J Burns played a central role in American foreign policy from the end of the Cold War to the collapse of relations with Putin’s Russian, and including secret talks with Iran. He explores the language of diplomacy.
Harriet Shawcross is an award-winning filmmaker and journalist. She reflects on how as a teenager she stopped speaking for almost a year. In her book Unspeakable she considers the power of silence.
The musician and composer Kathryn Tickell roots her work in in the landscape and people of Northumbria. She is the foremost exponent of the Northumbrian pipes, and tells the story of Northumbria with - and without - words.
Thomas Dixon studies emotional outbursts as the director of the Centre for the History of Emotions. He unveils the scientific and philosophical underpinnings of anger and weeping.
Producer: Katy Hickman
MON 09:45 Book of the Week (m0003tdy)
Two Weeks in November: The Astonishing Story of the Coup That Toppled Mugabe
Episode 1
A thrilling, surreal, unbelievable and sometimes even funny true story of four would-be enemies who team up to help unseat one of Africa’s longest serving dictators, Robert Mugabe.
What begins as an improbable adventure destined for failure, marked by a mixture of bravery, strategic cunning and bumbling naiveté, soon turns into the most sophisticated political-military operation in African history.
A high ranking politician, an exiled human rights lawyer, a dangerous spy and a low-key white businessman turned political fixer. By virtue of their being together, the unlikely team of misfit rivals is suddenly in position to spin what might have been seen as an illegal coup into a mass popular uprising that the world – and millions of Zimbabweans – will enthusiastically support.
The author Douglas Rogers is an award-winning journalist and travel writer who wrote The Last Resort: A memoir of Zimbabwe. He was born and raised in Zimbabwe and now lives in Brooklyn, New York.
Read by Joseph Kloska
Abridged by Polly Coles
Produced by Clive Brill
A Brill production for BBC Radio 4
MON 10:00 Woman's Hour (m0003t9p)
The programme that offers a female perspective on the world
MON 10:45 15 Minute Drama (m0003t9t)
Coach Karen's Half-Time Team Talk
Episode One
Coach Karen is the new coach of an under-13 girls football team called the Hopperton Hoops. They're not the most successful team in the league, in fact they've never won a game. And under Karen, this record is unlikely to change.
A brand new comedy series by Harry Venning (Clare in the Community) about how a young woman with no life experience is desperate to share it with people even younger than herself.
Starring Karen Fishwick (RSC Juliet, Our Ladies of Perpetual Succour) as Coach Karen.
Episode 1: Karen shares her secret past with her avid young audience.
Cast:
Coach Karen…..……Karen Fishwick
Scarlett…………....…Eva Woodbridge
Polly…………..….......Carla Abbott
Daisy………….….......Clara Shepherd-Thompson
Ava……..…….....…....Iona Milward
Kirsty……….….….... Safia Kadri
Ajoba.....…….…...….Hana Doe
Tilly……………...…....Catie Shakespeare-Kearns
Polly’s dad…...…...Alex Lowe
Writer: Harry Venning
Director/Producer: Alison Vernon-Smith
A Sweet Talk production for BBC Radio 4
MON 11:00 A Job for the Boys (m0003t9y)
Women once made up 80% of the computer industry. They are now less than 20%. Mary Ann Sieghart explores the hidden and disturbing consequences of not having women at the heart of the tech.
Who is the in room today when technology is designed determines how society is being shaped. Justine Cassell, from Carnegie Mellon University, says young men in Silicon Valley are told, “Design for you. Design what you would want to use” and so virtual assistants, such as the ever-female Siri, Alexa and Cortana play with “cute talk” and female game characters still have their “tits hanging out of their blouses.”
Artificial Intelligence is now making life-changing choices for us - about our health, our loans, even bail. But it isn’t faultless; it is biased. AI is only as good as the data it’s been fed and if it’s learning from prejudice, it will only amplify it.
Apps designed by men are overlooking women’s health, algorithms are rejecting women outright and as MIT Professor Catherine Tucker explains, they aren’t even being sent jobs adverts “because their eyeballs are more expensive.”
Mary Ann looks at why women left the computer industry and what still deters them today. She hears the challenges that tech entrepreneur Steve Shirley faced in the 1960s are almost identical to those voiced by organisers of the Google walkout last year. Women are harassed, side lined and not taken seriously; they are put off by a cult of genius and techno-chauvinism.
But there is hope. Mary Ann meets campaigners trying to regulate AI gender bias and those succeeding in getting more women into tech, finding a small tweak in classroom design or style of university marking can make a real difference.
Producer: Sarah Bowen.
MON 11:30 Giles Wemmbley Hogg Goes Off (m0003jrw)
Giles Wemmbley Hogg Goes Off... Article 50
He’s back! Marcus Brigstocke stars as Budleigh Salterton’s biggest idiot, come to help us over the cliff-edge in a show that - in a tribute to Brexit – will still be being put together right up to the last minute.
It's misery chez the Wemmbley Hogg household. Since Giles's mother - Mums - and his father - Peter Wemmbley Hogg, same spelling - voted on opposite sides of the Brexit coin, nobody is speaking to each other anymore and Giles isn't even allowed to use the word "chez”.
So, if - like Giles - you're confused, miserable and torn between the Remoaners and the Brexiteers, then this is the show for you as, in one glorious half-hour special, Giles decides that for the sake of his family - and probably Britain - he's going to ruddy well SORT IT OUT.
Cast:
Giles Wemmbley Hogg................Marcus Brigstocke
Sir Michael.........................................Alexander Armstrong
Lina.......................................................Katy Wix
Charlotte Wemmbley Hogg.......Catherine Shepherd
Mr Figgis.............................................Mike Grady
Oskar....................................................Dan Tetsell
Written by Marcus Brigstocke and Jeremy Salsby with additional material by Nick Doody and Katie Storey
Produced by David Tyler
A Pozzitive production for BBC Radio 4
MON 12:00 News Summary (m0003tb2)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
MON 12:04 Home Fire (m0003tb6)
Episode 1
Isma was going to miss her flight. She had expected the interrogation, had practised for it, but not the hours of waiting beforehand, or the humiliation.
This breathtakingly topical, powerful thriller by Kamila Shamsie won the 2018 Women's Prize for Fiction and was Book of the Year for all the major UK Newspapers. Home Fire is about identity, conflicting loyalties, love and politics: a book for our times.
Isma and Aneeka must keep a secret about their younger brother for their own protection and his.
Abridged by Sara Davies. The series is read by Lisa Zahra and Sanjeev Bhaskar.
Producer... Mary Ward-Lowery
MON 12:18 You and Yours (m0003tbb)
Customer loyalty, Crashed cars, Creeping cost of living
Citizens Advice tell us there's still not enough being done to reward people who stay brand loyal - so should we all start switching more often?
The written off cars that are back on our roads - without the paperwork which tells us where they've been.
The 11 things that will cost us more from today - can you name them? And what's the one thing that we know will cost you less?
Making an old house greener - we meet the couple who spent more than three quarters of a million pounds to get the A grade rating they wanted.
The new system that means you'll get the compensation when you broadband goes down and no-one comes to fix it when they promised.
And the family who feel the health system let down their war-hero. Why was a 96 year old man moved 14 times between hospital wards in the last 10 weeks of his life?
PRESENTER: MELANIE ABBOTT
PRODUCER: PETE WILSON
MON 12:57 Weather (m0003tbg)
The latest weather forecast
MON 13:00 World at One (m0003tbn)
Mon-Thurs: Analysis of news and current affairs, presented by Sarah Montague. Fri: Analysis of news and current affairs, presented by Mark Mardell.
MON 13:45 The Decade That Invented the Future: The 1970s (m0003tbv)
1970: Modern British feminism
Feminist theorist and writer Sheila Rowbotham explores the legacy of Britain’s first national Women’s Liberation Movement conference, held in Oxford in 1970. "Most important of all," she recalls, "was the collective confidence, energy and strength that came from discovering there were several hundred of us...I floated through the weekend in a state of buoyant happiness."
Producer: Neil Koenig
MON 14:00 The Archers (m0003szl)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Sunday]
MON 14:15 Drama (m0003tc1)
The Ferryhill Philosophers
Psychological Continuity and the Waterfall of Self
By Michael Chaplin.
In the next five new episodes of The Ferryhill Philosophers Joe and Hermione reassess their friendship as Joe welcomes a first grandchild and Hermione supports him in facing a family crisis, and together they say farewell to her father.
Alun Armstrong and Deborah Findlay star once again as the unlikely duo of ex-miner and Durham University philosopher facing life’s big questions together.
Joe Snowball ... Alun Armstrong
Hermione Pink ... Deborah Findlay
Rachel ... Tracy Gillman
George ... Geoffrey Palmer
Archie ... David Holt
Directed by Marilyn Imrie
A Catherine Bailey Production
MON 15:00 Brain of Britain (m0003tc5)
Heat 2, 2019
(2/17)
Russell Davies welcomes another four contenders for the 66th Brain of Britain title, at the Radio Theatre in London.
Among the unpredictable topics they'll be asked on today are classic 20th century drama, active volcanoes, the Bible, James Bond theme songs and the composition of the blood. There's also a chance for a Brain of Britain listener to win a prize by outwitting the contestants with questions of his or her own devising.
Today's competitors are:
Harry Heath from Redditch in Worcestershire
Ian Parkes from Burton-on-Trent
Jeremy Platt from Bracknell
Ruth Wright who lives near Moreton-in-Marsh in Gloucestershire.
Producer: Paul Bajoria
MON 15:30 The Food Programme (m0003syw)
[Repeat of broadcast at
12:32 on Sunday]
MON 16:00 Where are all the black women in Grime? (m0003tcf)
Journalist and Grime fan Yomi Adegoke noticed something lacking when it comes to discovering and enjoying the genre of music she loves. Women who look like her.
Whether it’s behind the scenes or at the forefront, black women seem noticeably absent while, in the past 15 years, stars such as Dizzee Rascal, Stormzy, Wiley and Skepta have become mainstream names as the genre grows exponentially, exporting this distinctly British sound internationally from China to the USA.
Yomi takes a journey through the music industry to ask some difficult questions. She meets the women who are making waves - including veteran artists Lioness and Shystie, as well as industry insiders and those scrutinising the scene from the outside.
She finds that, though significantly outnumbered, black women can be found among the artists, producers, managers and tastemakers, but they lack the profile and representation of their male and/or white counterparts.
It's also a problem the industry seems reluctant to address, raising uncomfortable questions indicative of the wider challenges black women face in the UK - colourism and misogynoir.
Yomi hears how this inimitable, thriving genre is defined by the artists who make it, and discovers a complex music scene that celebrates its black female artists on the one hand, but hasn’t yet given them the space, profile or support to grow.
But are things changing?
With contributions from Dr Joy White, Alex 'Twin' Boateng, Jasmine Dotiwala and more.
Produced by Sefa Nkyi
Mixed by Steve Wyatt
A Boom Shakalaka production for BBC Radio 4
MON 16:30 Beyond Belief (m0003tcm)
Masculinity and Religion
What it means to be a man in today’s world is confusing. There are lots of mixed messages. Men are often portrayed as needing to be the alpha male, remain strong under pressure, to get on and succeed in life but they are also supposed to be loving, caring, sensitive and talk about feelings. So what does it mean to be a man today? How should we define masculinity and what answers and tips can religion give to men today? Joining Ernie Rea to discuss these questions are Rabbi Neil Janes, Congregational Rabbi at the West London Synagogue; Dr Andrew Boakye, Lecturer in Religions and Theology at the University of Manchester and Assad Zaman, an Imam at several mosques in Manchester. Plus Citizen Khan actor Abdullah Afzal talks about how he juggles with competing pressures on how to be a modern Muslim man.
Producer: Amanda Hancox
MON 17:00 PM (m0003tct)
Afternoon news and current affairs programme, reporting on breaking stories and summing up the day's headlines.
MON 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m0003tcy)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
MON 18:30 The Unbelievable Truth (m0003td2)
Series 22
Episode 1
David Mitchell hosts the panel game in which four comedians are encouraged to tell lies and compete against one another to see how many items of truth they're able to smuggle past their opponents.
Richard Osman, Holly Walsh, Luisa Omielan and Jack Dee are the panellists obliged to talk with deliberate inaccuracy on subjects as varied as mice, Las Vegas, Beyonce and rubbish.
Produced by Jon Naismith
A Random Entertainment production for BBC Radio 4
MON 19:00 The Archers (m0003qxy)
Lily is left frustrated and Alistair meets his new business partner.
MON 19:15 Front Row (m0003td6)
Live magazine programme on the worlds of arts, literature, film, media and music
MON 19:45 15 Minute Drama (m0003t9t)
[Repeat of broadcast at
10:45 today]
MON 20:00 My Name Is... (m0003r3s)
Youth Climate Strikers
17 year old Londoner, Noga Levy-Rapoport is helping organise UK wide school strikes as part of a growing global campaign for action on climate change.
The London sixth former was inspired to act after 16 year old Greta Thunberg began skipping classes to sit outside government buildings last September. She accused Sweden of not following the Paris Climate Agreement and her protests inspired tens of thousands of children across the globe to hold their own demonstrations.
Noga had not been intending to become a leader of UK wide protests, but the February strike UK day saw thousands of schoolchildren and young people walk out of classes and in London at least they needed some direction. As youngsters gathered on the grass she stepped forward and took charge, with protestors snaking behind her as they headed for Trafalgar Square.
Once there she was handed an microphone and started to speak, her passion and anger spilling over into an impromptu blockade of the roads as children linked arms and chanted. Her actions catapulted her centre stage in what is now a growing movement and the recordings follow her as she plans the March 15th strike day and urges parliament to tackle the escalating ecological crisis.
Through these recordings Noga discusses the preparations and the lead up to the global strikes; the biggest environmental protest that students have organised and taken part in: “Our time to save our planet is running out; we have twelve years left before our impending environmental doom can't be stopped and we have to legislate new regulations now or we will not have a world as we know it.”
She says she feels increasingly optimistic: “it's such a powerful thing for students to come and say their piece. I'm here to make a stand, to make a difference. For me going to the first UK school strike in February was something I had to do – there was no way I could avoid it or make excuses. When I got there I knew I had to step forward and take a lead because we needed to make our voices heard.”
Organisers estimated that around 3,000 schoolchildren and young people gathered in London, with 2,000 in Oxford and smaller protests in many other cities. The March 15th strike day looks set to take place in more than 50 countries, although the Youth Strikes for Climate movement is not centrally organised, so keeping track of the fast growing number of strikers is difficult.
Noga says she will continue to organise the actions until there is climate justice: she is keen to debate her views on what could be done and takes her message to delegates attending the International Petroleum Conference in London. She speaks to her MP and liaises with those pioneering new approaches, whilst also promoting individual changes to friends and neighbours.
“I’m just a kid like any other kid, but having been in theatre for a while has given me the confidence and the leadership skills to not back down, to not hesitate when eyes are on me. And I think that was a key factor when people were asking what to do – I just had to come up with something on the spot. I got things organised and people followed me as we marched.
“There’s a massive positive reaction to the action. I think it's so inspiring and powerful to see how many people care and how many young people took to the streets. We are saying that we won't have schools to go to if we don't fix this in the next twelve years.
“For me it's a really strange concept that people know who I am. When people are relying on the next generation to be the next leaders and to lead us into a future where climate change hopefully won't have the horrible impact we think it will, then we've got to be ourselves and we've got to show who we are or people won't listen to us.”
Produced by Sue Mitchell
MON 20:30 Crossing Continents (m0003jpm)
Unrest in Ukraine’s Little Hungary
Eastern Ukraine has been under assault from Russian backed rebel forces for the past five years, but few have heard of a smaller conflict, which could be brewing in the west of the country, between Ukraine and Hungary. Some have accused the Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban of trying to create a breakaway state in impoverished Transcarpathia, once part of the Austro-Hungarian empire.
Ukraine and Hungary both expelled diplomats from each other’s nations, following a row over passports and a Hungarian cultural centre has been repeatedly firebombed. Lucy Ash meets people in the Ukrainian border town of Berehove and investigates whether deepening tensions could destabilise the region and further dash Ukraine’s hopes of being a unified country inside NATO and the EU.
Producer: Josephine Casserly
(Image: Pupil at a Hungarian-language secondary school in Berehove in Western Ukraine walks down a corridor bearing a portrait of Lajos Kossuth, the 19th Century political reformer after whom the school is named. Credit: Balint Bardi)
MON 21:00 No Triumph, No Tragedy (m0003td8)
Isaac Lidsky was only young when doctors diagnosed a rare eye condition which would eventually lead to him and two of his three sisters losing their sight. He hasn’t let blindness slow him down, however, and on top of his legal career he has made millions through tech start-ups. To add to his work load he is the father of triplets and wants to be a hands on Dad!
MON 21:30 Start the Week (m0003t9g)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:00 today]
MON 22:00 The World Tonight (m0003tdd)
In depth reporting, intelligent analysis and breaking news from a global perspective
MON 22:45 Home Fire (m0003tb6)
[Repeat of broadcast at
12:04 today]
MON 23:00 When Greeks Flew Kites (m0003tdk)
Into the World
At a moment when Brexit and our carbon footprints are prompting us to reassess what it means to move around the world, Sarah Dunant looks at the long history of travel and the ways it has enchanted and alarmed us across the centuries.
The anxieties over young Tudor travellers returning radicalised from Catholic Europe was a phenomenon that gripped England after the break with Rome. Nandini Das argues that fears over travel helped to define a nation.
Professor Eric Zuelow shows how the Nazi regime turned travel into a highly sophisticated propaganda tool, organising tours and trips specifically designed to cement ideas of racial superiority and national identity.
In the Middle Ages, travel is seen to be a startlingly tolerant and cosmopolitan experience, as the naturally curious medieval mind seeks to expand the borders of its world in a spirit of generosity. Whether the fantastical journeys of Sir John Mandeville or the diplomatic missions of Dominican Friars to Mongol Kings, Sebastian Sobecki explains how new discoveries were always understood through their existing religious and cultural lenses.
And as the destructive nature of travel and excessive footfall becomes clearer, John Slight explains how the new travel technology of the 19th century led to an explosion in the number of Muslim pilgrims to Mecca, threatening the infrastructure, political stability and even its physical environment, as this small town crumbled under the pressure of hundreds of thousands of visitors.
Presenter: Sarah Dunant
Readers: Karina Fernandez and Keith Wickham
Producers: Natalie Steed and Nathan Gower
Executive Producer: David Prest
A Whistledown production for BBC Radio 4
MON 23:30 Today in Parliament (m0003tdp)
News, views and features on today's stories in Parliament
TUESDAY 02 APRIL 2019
TUE 00:00 Midnight News (m0003tdt)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4
TUE 00:30 Book of the Week (m0003tdy)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:45 on Monday]
TUE 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m0003tf1)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
TUE 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m0003tf3)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.
TUE 05:20 Shipping Forecast (m0003tf5)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
TUE 05:30 News Briefing (m0003tf7)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4
TUE 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m0003tf9)
A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day with Ann Memmott. Ann is a national and international adviser on autism, and main author of autism guidelines for the Church of England.
Good morning
Today is World Autism Day. A day when those of us in the autistic communities may wish to celebrate all that we are, and the great steps forward in understanding autism in recent years, as a difference where some need more support, not a deficit or a disease.
What would a world without autism look like? What would our churches look like? There would be fewer dedicated autistic Architects, designing our buildings. Fewer craftspeople, doing painstaking work in stone, wood, glass and so many other materials, creating lasting beauty and deep purpose. There would be fewer autistic church leaders, bringing honesty and integrity, diligence and fairness to their work for God. Fewer autistic musicians, bringing life to worship after decades of practice, bring excellence through autistic sensory differences. And fewer autistic people in the pews, as likely to be Christians as anyone else.
Every autistic person is a person of value, a person fully worthy of love. That journeying through life involves both autistic and non-autistic people learning from one another, cherishing their time together.
I have been blessed with sharing life with countless hundreds of autistic people of all kinds. It is thought that Jesus had an autistic friend, Nicodemus. , - “Can a person be born again” he asked - an expert on the laws, and still there at Jesus’s side even at the tomb. That’s friendship indeed.
God of all people, lead us to deep understanding and shared fellowship with all those whom Jesus called his brothers and sisters. Guide us in love on this World Autism Day.
Amen
TUE 05:45 Farming Today (m0003tfc)
The latest news about food, farming and the countryside.
TUE 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b04t0mj0)
Greater Hill Mynah
Tweet of the Day is the voice of birds and our relationship with them, from around the world.
Sir David Attenborough presents the mimic specialist Greater Hill Mynah from Asia. Like many members of the starling family, Greater Hill Mynah's are superb mimics with a remarkable ability to reproduce the tones of the human voice. This makes them popular as cage and now some wild populations have been severely reduced by collecting. Hill mynahs are not just vocally outstanding. They're dapper looking birds too; glossy purplish-black with a white wing-patch and wattles of bright yellow skin under their eyes and around the back of their necks. The wild birds don't impersonate people though; it's only those captive birds which are amongst some of the best mimics of the human voice.
TUE 06:00 Today (m0003qwz)
News and current affairs, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.
TUE 09:00 The Life Scientific (m0003qx1)
Irene Tracey on pain in the brain
Pain, as we know, is highly personal. Some can cope with huge amounts, while others reel in agony over a seemingly minor injury. Though you might feel the stab of pain in your stubbed toe or sprained ankle, it is actually processed in the brain.
That is where Irene Tracey, Nuffield Professor of Anaesthetic Science at Oxford University, has been focussing her attention. Known as the Queen of Pain, she has spent the past two decades unravelling the complexities of this puzzling sensation.
She goes behind the scenes, as it were, of what happens when we feel pain - scanning the brains of her research subjects while subjecting them to a fair amount of burning, prodding and poking.
Her work is transforming our understanding, revealing how our emotions influence our experience of pain, how chronic pain develops and even when consciousness is present in the brain.
Producer: Beth Eastwood
TUE 09:30 One to One (m0003qx3)
Life in prison: Alan Rusbridger talks to Jonathan Aitken
In 1999, Jonathan Aitken was sentenced to 18 months for perjury and perverting the course of justice. He went on to spend seven months behind bars, in three different prisons. At the time, Alan Rusbridger was his adversary. Then editor of The Guardian newspaper, Alan had reported Jonathan to the police for perjury after a high profile libel trial.
Twenty years on, Alan sits down with Jonathan, now a chaplain at Pentonville Prison, to find out what he learned from life behind bars, how the experience of incarceration changed the way he thought, and how it continues to shape his life today.
Producer: Camellia Sinclair
TUE 09:45 Book of the Week (m0003qx5)
Two Weeks in November: The Astonishing Story of the Coup That Toppled Mugabe
Episode 2
A thrilling, surreal, unbelievable and sometimes even funny true story of four would-be enemies who team up to help unseat one of Africa’s longest serving dictators, Robert Mugabe.
What begins as an improbable adventure destined for failure, marked by a mixture of bravery, strategic cunning and bumbling naiveté, soon turns into the most sophisticated political-military operation in African history.
A high ranking politician, an exiled human rights lawyer, a dangerous spy and a low-key white businessman turned political fixer. By virtue of their being together, the unlikely team of misfit rivals is suddenly in position to spin what might have been seen as an illegal coup into a mass popular uprising that the world – and millions of Zimbabweans – will enthusiastically support.
The author Douglas Rogers is an award-winning journalist and travel writer who wrote The Last Resort: A memoir of Zimbabwe. He was born and raised in Zimbabwe and now lives in Brooklyn, New York.
Read by Joseph Kloska
Abridged by Polly Coles
Produced by Clive Brill
A Brill production for BBC Radio 4
TUE 10:00 Woman's Hour (m0003qx8)
The programme that offers a female perspective on the world
TUE 10:45 15 Minute Drama (m0003qxb)
Coach Karen's Half-Time Team Talk
Episode Two
Coach Karen is the new coach of an under-13 girls football team called the Hopperton Hoops. They're not the most successful team in the league, in fact they've never won a game. And under Karen, this record is unlikely to change.
A brand new comedy series by Harry Venning (Clare in the Community) about how a young woman with no life experience is desperate to share it with people even younger than herself.
Starring Karen Fishwick (RSC Juliet, Our Ladies of Perpetual Succour) as Coach Karen.
Episode 2: Polly's Dad makes an appearance in the dressing room with some very unwelcome advice to Karen.
Cast:
Coach Karen………Karen Fishwick
Scarlett…………..…Eva Woodbridge
Polly…………....….…Carla Abbott
Daisy……….…..…....Clara Shepherd-Thompson
Ava……..……...…....Iona Milward
Kirsty………..….…...Safia Kadri
Ajoba.....…….…..….Hana Doe
Tilly……………...…...Catie Shakespeare-Kearns
Polly’s dad…...…...Alex Lowe
Writer: Harry Venning
Director/Producer: Alison Vernon-Smith
A Sweet Talk production for BBC Radio 4
TUE 11:00 A Sense of Time (m0003qxf)
Animal senses reveal a wealth of information that humans can't access. Birds can see in ultra violet, and some fish can 'feel' electricity. But how do different species sense time?
If you've ever tried to swat flies, you'll know that they seem to have super-powered reactions that let them escape before you can blink. Presenter Geoff Marsh asks whether flies have some sort of super-power to see the world in slow motion. Are they watching your hand come down at what might appear a leisurely pace?
Science reveals a window into the minds of different species and their temporal perceptions. Some flies have such fast vision that they can see and react to movement at four times the rate you can, and our vision works at more than six times the speed of one species of deep sea fish. This programme delves into each moment of experience to ask 'what is time, biologically?' When birds have to dodge through forests and catch flies on the wing, or when flies have to avoid birds, it would seem that a faster temporal resolution would be a huge advantage. So what is their sense of time?
Geoff meets physicist Carlo Rovelli and asks him to jump outside of physics to answer questions on biology and philosophy. Geoff explores the mind of a bat with Professor Yossi Yovel in Israel, and dissects birdsong at super slow speeds with BBC wildlife sound recordist, Chris Watson. Getting deep into the minds of animals he questions whether our seconds feel like swordfish seconds, or a beetles' or birds' or bats..?
Presenter: Geoff Marsh
Producer: Rory Galloway
TUE 11:30 The Art of Now (b0bgblcj)
True Jit
Tayo Popoola looks at the changing face of the Zimbabwean music scene since the fall of Robert Mugabe.
Zimbabwean musicians had been largely silenced by the reign of Mugabe. Internationally renowned performers like Thomas Mapfumo and Lovemore Najaivama were banned by state TV and radio for their socially minded lyrics and their opposition to Government corruption. Night curfews meant that many music venues were forced to close.
Now Mapfumo, known as "the lion of Zimbabwe", has announced his return from exile later this year, and musicians are feeling free to express themselves.
In Bulawayo, musical styles like Sungura and Jit, which placed Zimbabwe at the centre of the African music scene in the 1980s, are being revived. They are irrepressibly upbeat, encapsulate the joyous period immediately after independence, and are playing to new audiences.
Tayo Popoola assesses the mood of the Zimbabwean music scene as it emerges into the light.
Producer: David Prest
A Whistledown production for BBC Radio 4.
TUE 12:00 News Summary (m0003qxh)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
TUE 12:04 Home Fire (m0003qxk)
Episode 2
While studying in the US, Isma gets to know Eamonn, the son of an old family acquaintance, who also happens to be an ambitious British politician. But she and her sister Aneeka must keep the secret about their younger brother, for their own protection and his.
This breathtakingly topical, powerful thriller by Kamila Shamsie won the 2018 Women's Prize for Fiction and was Book of the Year for all the major UK Newspapers. Home Fire is about identity, conflicting loyalties, love and politics: a book for our times.
Abridged by Sara Davies. The series is read by Lisa Zahra and Sanjeev Bhaskar.
Producer... Mary Ward-Lowery
TUE 12:18 You and Yours (m0003qxn)
News and discussion of consumer affairs.
TUE 12:57 Weather (m0003qxq)
The latest weather forecast
TUE 13:00 World at One (m0003qxs)
Mon-Thurs: Analysis of news and current affairs, presented by Sarah Montague. Fri: Analysis of news and current affairs, presented by Mark Mardell.
TUE 13:45 The Decade That Invented the Future: The 1970s (m0003qxv)
1971: The CT Scan
Neurosurgeon and writer Henry Marsh tells the story of the revolution in medical diagnosis brought on by the advent of the CT scan. It was developed at Atkinson Morley Hospital in London, where Marsh was later to work. "CT scanning was a revolutionary breakthrough," he says. "For the first time the living brain could be made visible. Neurology and neurosurgery changed profoundly to the immeasurable benefit of patients."
Producer: Neil Koenig
TUE 14:00 The Archers (m0003qxy)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Monday]
TUE 14:15 Drama (b08k2n07)
The Interrogation
Beverley
by Roy Williams
Detective Inspector Max Matthews (Kenneth Cranham) and Detective Sergeant Sean Armitage (Alex Lanipekun) are back for a new series of contemporary crime dramas. Today the detective duo subject a woman who has reported her elderly father missing to their unique style of interrogation. Beverley's story.
Music ..... David Pickvance
Director ..... Mary Peate
The Interrogation, running Wednesday to Friday this week, comprises three hard-hitting contemporary crime stories that probe some of today's most complex moral issues.
Roy Williams is an award-winning English playwright who is considered one of the most astute and talented chroniclers of his time. Williams has many awards including the George Devine Award for Lift Off, the 2001 Evening Standard Award for Most Promising Playwright for his play Clubland, the 2002 BAFTA for Best Schools Drama for Offside and 2004 South Bank Show Arts Council Decibel Award. Sucker Punch, produced by The Royal Court Theatre, was nominated for the Evening Standard Award for Best New Play and the Olivier Award for Best New Play 2011. Other stand-out theatre productions include FALLOUT (Royal Court Theatre) and SING YER HEART OUT FOR THE LADS (NT). Williams was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2008 Birthday Honours.
Praise for Williams' writing in the first series of The Interrogation:
He writes about the stuff you'd rather not know, prefer not to think about, pretend to ignore. But it lives on with you in the mind. It won't let you go. By his words, the sharp, brittle, spot-on dialogue, he forces you to recognise the limitations of your experience, your understanding. It's not the story outline that matters, but the characterisation, the way the people speak, the language they use. Each of the characters is so clearly differentiated you know exactly what they look like without a detail being given to us. Through the conversation, the interaction, we gather in the back story, we get the gist. There are no easy answers. It's life, messy life, the life we'd rather not think about as we listen to the radio, doing the ironing, making marmalade, cocooned mostly from the nasty, brutish world dealt with by others on our behalf.
Kate Chisholm, The Spectator.
TUE 15:00 Short Cuts (m00017t1)
Series 17
Meals
Josie Long presents short documentaries about food - from congee on a mountaintop to the nightmarish consequences of a family dinner.
The writer Jessica J Lee tries to recreate a vivid sensory experience and Australian audio-maker Mike Williams shares a visceral story of a Christmas Eve meal.
Mutual Mastication
Produced by Steve Urquhart
The Nightmare Before Christmas
Produced by Mike Williams
Congee Dreams
Produced by Jessica J Lee
Last Requests
Produced by Hannah Dean
Series Producer: Eleanor McDowall
A Falling Tree production for BBC Radio 4
TUE 15:30 Costing the Earth (m0003qy0)
Dash from Gas
Around 90% of homes in Britain get their hot water and heating from gas-fired boilers. There are 23 million of them in Britain. The Chancellor has banned them from new homes after 2025 and by 2050 they'll be history. The government is committed to phasing them out to meet international climate change commitments.
So what are the alternatives to the gas that's provided reliable, reasonably priced heat since it was first piped ashore from the North Sea in the late 1960s? Electric heating is a quick and easy replacement but we would need to massively increase the amount of green electricity that we generate. Hydrogen gas could be burnt in home appliances but producing hydrogen takes a lot of energy and expensive new infrastructure would be needed.
Peter Gibbs is on the hunt for solutions, basing himself in the valleys of South Wales where energy companies and their customers are trialling new fuels, new smart technology and new payment methods to cut the carbon from heating our homes.
Producer: Alasdair Cross
TUE 16:00 Patronising Barbara (m000128b)
91-year-old Barbara Smith investigates why we patronise older people, and why we view them differently.
From nurses in the NHS, to shop assistants; to friends and family; research is showing that we’re talking to elderly people like they’re children. We talk in what's known as 'Elderspeak' using sing-song voices and speaking down to them, calling them "sweetheart" and "dear." We might think they don't need to know something so we don't tell them, or we assume they won't understand or have any interest in a subject.
Barbara used to be geography teacher and now lives in Leamington Spa in Warwickshire. Barbara is very independent and adventurous: she goes to exercise and art classes, and she recently presented a radio documentary about charity fundraising for Radio 4, called Selling Barbara.
The language we use to speak to older people can have serious consequences in terms of health, dignity and self-confidence. Recent research by a commission of senior NHS managers, charities and council chiefs found that discrimination towards the elderly is “rooted” in British society, in hospitals and care homes especially. Barbara finds out how it has serious consequences on older people, from not taking them seriously to seeing them as second class citizens.
In this documentary Barbara, with the help of Radio 4 producer Lydia Thomas, goes into an NHS hospital and speaks to doctors and nurses about how their language affects patients, Barbara demonstrates how she is patronised on a shopping trip when asking for help from shop assistants. We also hear from Barbara's friends about their experiences of being spoken to in this way, and how it makes them feel. Barbara hopes this programme will change how listeners view older people and make them think twice about how they speak to them.
Presenter: Barbara Smith
Producer: Lydia Thomas
Contributors:
Dr Maye Taylor, Academic and Clinical Psychologist
Professor Tahir Masud, President-Elect of the British Geriatric Society and heads the Clinical Gerontology Research Unit at Nottingham University Hospitals
Natasha Edwards, Deputy Sister on Ward C52, Queen's Medical Centre, Nottingham University Hospitals
Mary, Sally and Eileen, Barbara's friends
TUE 16:30 Great Lives (m0003qy2)
Series 48
Shappi Khorsandi on Emma, Lady Hamilton
Comedian and author Shappi Khorsandi has been desperate to tell the story of Emma, Lady Hamilton as she’s quite simply one of her greatest fans. Everyone knows Emma Hamilton as simply the seducer of Admiral Horatio Nelson but according to Shappi she was more than that; history has simply palmed her off as a prostitute, a mistress, without looking at the deeper story of what she suffered and endured.
In this programme Shappi, with help from Professor Kate Williams, author of ‘England’s Mistress’, makes the case for how this woman born into poverty clawed her way up through London’s sordid underworld and became fantastically famous posing for artist George Romney. She also became an ambassador’s wife and mixed in diplomatic circles and became the confidante of both Marie Antoinette and the Queen of Naples.
Will presenter Matthew Parris be convinced and accept Emma, Lady Hamilton as a great life.
Producer, Perminder Khatkar
TUE 17:00 PM (m0003qy4)
Afternoon news and current affairs programme, reporting on breaking stories and summing up the day's headlines.
TUE 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m0003qy6)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
TUE 18:30 My Teenage Diary (b07dlxmq)
Series 7
Lionel Shriver
The writer Lionel Shriver reads from her frank and highly personal teenage journals, while discussing her formative years with Rufus Hound.
She talks about her attempts to rebel against her religious upbringing, her complex relationship with her older brother, and her suspicion of young children - which began when she was little more than a child herself.
Producer: Harriet Jaine
Executive Producer: Aled Evans
A Talkback production for BBC Radio 4.
TUE 19:00 The Archers (m0003qy8)
Elizabeth questions her feelings and Will makes a breakthrough.
TUE 19:15 Front Row (m0003qyb)
Live magazine programme on the worlds of arts, literature, film, media and music
TUE 19:45 15 Minute Drama (m0003qxb)
[Repeat of broadcast at
10:45 today]
TUE 20:00 Will AI Kill Development? (m0003qyd)
How artificial intelligence could increase world inequality: Professor Ian Goldin finds that the kind of rapid development once enjoyed by regions like East Asia and based on manufacturing is unlikely ever to repeat itself, as developing countries bear the brunt of automation, and the economic benefits go mainly to more advanced nations. Speaking both to AI experts and consumers, he finds the cards stacked against the world's poor, who are less likely to have the high skills demanded by the emerging technology, and will find it ever harder to catch up. And, as developing countries' one big asset, a plentiful supply of cheap labour, risks turning into a liability, he asks what, if anything, can be done.
Producer: Mike Gallagher
TUE 20:40 In Touch (m0003qyg)
News, views and information for people who are blind or partially sighted
TUE 21:00 The Patch (m00016dl)
Salcombe
One radio producer, one randomly generated postcode, and an unheard story unfolding in a corner of Britain we wouldn’t otherwise know about.
Earlier this year, producer Polly Weston discovered a random postcode generator on the internet. It sparked a radical idea. Maybe by randomly generating postcodes, and then going there, we'd find stories which are being overlooked - stories of national importance which we never would have noticed without stumbling into them.
Each week, a new postcode is randomly generated. This postcode becomes Polly's patch. Near or far, populated or not, this is the area where she must go to make the programme.
Week one takes us to TQ8 8 - and into the heart of the mystery of the disappearing crabs.
Producer/Presenter: Polly Weston
Exec Producer: Jolyon Jenkins
TUE 21:30 The Life Scientific (m0003qx1)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:00 today]
TUE 22:00 The World Tonight (m0003qyj)
In depth reporting, intelligent analysis and breaking news from a global perspective
TUE 22:45 Home Fire (m0003qxk)
[Repeat of broadcast at
12:04 today]
TUE 23:00 Fred at The Stand (m0003qyl)
Series 2
Ria Lina, Eshaan Akbar, Susan Riddell and Hal Cruttenden
Fred MacAulay is back at The Stand Comedy Club in Glasgow doing what he does best - making people laugh.
This new series brings another selection of some of the best of stand-up comedians working in the UK right now. Some you’ll know and some you won’t - yet.
In this first episode, Fred introduces the incredible Ria Lina who celebrates her favourite child with her unique parenting style, the challenging Eshaan Akbar sees through thinly-veiled racism on public transport, the self-confessed underdressed Susan Riddell wants part of her body to be dishwasher friendly, and one of the country’s favourite stand-ups Hal Cruttenden plans his own funeral down to the gristly end.
Fred At The Stand is the closest thing your ears are going to get to an actual night in a comedy club.
A Dabster production for BBC Radio 4
TUE 23:30 Today in Parliament (m0003qyn)
News, views and features on today's stories in Parliament
WEDNESDAY 03 APRIL 2019
WED 00:00 Midnight News (m0003qyq)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4
WED 00:30 Book of the Week (m0003qx5)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:45 on Tuesday]
WED 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m0003qys)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
WED 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m0003qyv)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.
WED 05:20 Shipping Forecast (m0003qyx)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
WED 05:30 News Briefing (m0003qyz)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4
WED 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m0003qz1)
A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day with Ann Memmott. Ann is a national and international adviser on autism, and main author of autism guidelines for the Church of England.
I’m reliably informed that the 3rd of April is “Find a Rainbow Day”. I understand that there are twelve types of rainbow, ranging from the usual ones through to fogbows appearing in clouds, and even a rainbow that is just red. In my own faith, as a Christian, I’m mindful of the rainbow that was sent to Noah, which we read about in the book of Genesis. A sign of God’s everlasting covenant with humanity, and with all creation.
One of the chosen symbols of the autistic communities, this Autism Acceptance Week, is a rainbow coloured infinity symbol. Symbolising the variety and diversity of autistic people, it is a symbol of hope. Whilst not all autistic people share one faith – far from it - , all may share that one hope of moving past the many years of myths and misunderstandings, and reaching the safe harbour of a world where there is safety, joy and understanding of them.
Rainbows have been a reminder to me of God, during difficult times. I remember receiving the news that no-one wants to hear, that I had been diagnosed with cancer. That heart-sinking moment where we wonder what future lies ahead, and how our family will cope. Soon after, rain, a rainbow in the sky. A moment of peace, and hope, when I knew I was not alone. That God was by my side. I was grateful indeed for the medical teams and all who shared that journey with me.
God of covenant, watch over us on whatever journeys lies ahead, in sure and certain knowledge that you are ever at our side, through changing tides of despair and of hope, until we are with you for all eternity.
Amen
WED 05:45 Farming Today (m0003qz3)
The latest news about food, farming and the countryside.
WED 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b03zrcm9)
Goosander
Tweet of the Day is a series of fascinating stories about our British birds inspired by their calls and songs.
Kate Humble presents the goosander. Goosanders are handsome ducks and belong to a group known as 'sawbills' because their long slender bills are lined with backward pointing 'teeth', for gripping slippery fish. Underwater they're as agile as otters, chasing fish in raging currents or nosing for them under riverbanks.
WED 06:00 Today (m0003r39)
News and current affairs, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.
WED 09:00 Black Music in Europe: A Hidden History (m0003r3c)
Series 2
1939-45
Drawing on rare archive recordings, Clarke Peters' new three-part series explores the hidden history of black music across Europe, from the late 1920s through the war years and beyond.
Black music in Europe doesn’t begin with the arrival of the Empire Windrush at Tilbury. There is a long, rich history preserved on shellac discs that shows how diverse sounds enthralled the continent long before 1948.
Throughout the series, we hear from a huge array of different performers - including classical composers, jazz stars, calypso legends and more - as well as commentators and historians, to get to the heart of early black music in Europe.
Episode 2 - 1939-45
Clarke looks at the music of black Europe at the time of the Second World War with recordings of Nazi propaganda jazz, underground bands in Hitler’s Germany, black American trumpet stars in occupied Paris, and Caribbean swing bands playing through the Blitz in London. He also examines the work of Nigerian composer Fela Sowande and plays extracts of his wartime broadcast for the BBC.
Presented by Clarke Peters
Produced by Tom Woolfenden
A Loftus Media production for BBC Radio 4
WED 09:30 The Curious Cases of Rutherford & Fry (m0003r3f)
Series 13
The Mesmerist
“Is hypnosis real, and if so how does it work? Does it have any practical uses and which of Hannah and Adam is most susceptible?”
This question came from two Curios, Peter Jordan aged 24 from Manchester and Arran Kinnear aged 13 from Bristol.
Arch sceptics Hannah and Adam visit stage hypnotist Ben Dali to find out if they are susceptible to the power of suggestion. One of them will be successfully hypnotised, but who will it be?
Along the way we hear about the history of hypnosis from Wendy Moore author of 'The Mesmerist'. Plus psychologist Devin Terhune explains what we know about the science of hypnosis today and why some people are more susceptible than others.
Presenters: Hannah Fry, Adam Rutherford
Producer: Michelle Martin
WED 09:45 Book of the Week (m0003r3j)
Two Weeks in November: The Astonishing Story of the Coup That Toppled Mugabe
Episode 3
A thrilling, surreal, unbelievable and sometimes even funny true story of four would-be enemies who team up to help unseat one of Africa’s longest serving dictators, Robert Mugabe.
What begins as an improbable adventure destined for failure, marked by a mixture of bravery, strategic cunning and bumbling naiveté, soon turns into the most sophisticated political-military operation in African history.
A high ranking politician, an exiled human rights lawyer, a dangerous spy and a low-key white businessman turned political fixer. By virtue of their being together, the unlikely team of misfit rivals is suddenly in position to spin what might have been seen as an illegal coup into a mass popular uprising that the world – and millions of Zimbabweans – will enthusiastically support.
The author Douglas Rogers is an award-winning journalist and travel writer who wrote The Last Resort: A memoir of Zimbabwe. He was born and raised in Zimbabwe and now lives in Brooklyn, New York.
Read by Joseph Kloska
Abridged by Polly Coles
Produced by Clive Brill
A Brill production for BBC Radio 4
WED 10:00 Woman's Hour (m0003r3l)
The programme that offers a female perspective on the world
WED 10:41 15 Minute Drama (m0003r3n)
Coach Karen's Half-Time Team Talk
Episode Three
Coach Karen is the new coach of an under-13 girls football team called the Hopperton Hoops. They're not the most successful team in the league, in fact they've never won a game. And under Karen, this record is unlikely to change.
A brand new comedy series by Harry Venning (Clare in the Community) about how a young woman with no life experience is desperate to share it with people even younger than herself.
Starring Karen Fishwick (RSC Juliet, Our Ladies of Perpetual Succour) as Coach Karen.
Episode 3: Karen tries to toughen up the girls with fighting talk and terrifying new names.
Cast:
Coach Karen………Karen Fishwick
Scarlett……….….…Eva Woodbridge
Polly………..…..…...Carla Abbott
Daisy…………..…....Clara Shepherd-Thompson
Ava……..……...…....Iona Milward
Kirsty……….…..…..Safia Kadri
Ajoba......…….…….Hana Doe
Tilly……………....….Catie Shakespeare-Kearns
Polly’s dad…...…..Alex Lowe
Writer: Harry Venning
Director/Producer: Alison Vernon-Smith
A Sweet Talk production for BBC Radio 4
WED 10:55 The Listening Project (m0003r3q)
Jillian and Krista: I Cried at My First Birth
Friends travel back in time to when they first met as student nurses and recall why one chose midwifery and the other turned to general nursing. Fi Glover presents another conversation in a series that proves it's surprising what you hear when you listen.
WED 11:00 My Name Is... (m0003r3s)
[Repeat of broadcast at
20:00 on Monday]
WED 11:30 Ability (m0003r3w)
Series 2
Disability Exam
Matt is 25. He has cerebral palsy and can only speak via an app on his iPad. Everyone who cares about Matt knows that this isn't the defining thing about him. He is funny and clever and "up for stuff" - partly because he is keen to show that there's nothing he can't do, but also because, if he's honest, he's aware that he's less likely than other people to get the blame.
In this second series of the award nominated comedy, Matt is still sharing a flat with his best mate, Jess. He is still in love with her but, much as she likes him, she is still not in love with him. She does however, fancy Matt’s rubbish carer, Bob (Allan Mustafa). Well just a tiny bit anyway. Not that she would ever admit it. After all, Bob is even more lazy and useless at most things than she is.
But Bob is willing. And although domestic duties are not really his forte, he likes Matt and treats him like a real person. And over the last year or so the three of them have been through a lot together - well a lot of drinking and hangovers anyway.
Ability is the semi-autobiographical co-creation of the 2018 Britain’s Got Talent winner, Lee Ridley, otherwise known as Lost Voice Guy. Like his sitcom creation, Lee has cerebral palsy and can only speak via an app. He is - probably - the first stand up comedian to use a communication aid. Prior to BGT, Lee won the BBC New Comedy Award in 2014, has written and performed four full Edinburgh shows and has just completed a major sell out tour of the UK.
Katherine Jakeways, the co-creator and co-writer of Ability, is a multi-award nominated writer. She has written North by Northamptonshire, Guilt Trip and All Those Women for BBC Radio 4 as well as numerous radio plays. She has also written for Crackanory and The Tracey Ullman Show for TV.
The series is set in Newcastle and many of the cast last played together as children in Biker’s Grove.
Cast includes:
Matt............Lee Ridley – aka Lost Voice Guy
Bob..............Allan Mustafa
Jess..............Sammy Dobson
Matt's Inner Voice.............Andrew Hayden-Smith
A Funny Bones production for BBC Radio 4
WED 12:00 News Summary (m0003r3z)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
WED 12:04 Home Fire (m0003r41)
Episode 3
Intrigued by a photo of Isma's beautiful sister Aneeka, Eamonn takes a parcel to her home back in London, as a favour.
This breathtakingly topical, powerful thriller by Kamila Shamsie won the 2018 Women's Prize for Fiction and was Book of the Year for all the major UK Newspapers. Home Fire is about identity, conflicting loyalties, love and politics: a book for our times.
Abridged by Sara Davies and read by Lisa Zahra and Sanjeev Bhaskar.
Producer... Mary Ward-Lowery
WED 12:18 You and Yours (m0003r43)
News and discussion of consumer affairs.
WED 12:57 Weather (m0003r45)
The latest weather forecast
WED 13:00 World at One (m0003r47)
Mon-Thurs: Analysis of news and current affairs, presented by Sarah Montague. Fri: Analysis of news and current affairs, presented by Mark Mardell.
WED 13:45 The Decade That Invented the Future: The 1970s (m0003r49)
1972: Pride
The sociologist and writer Jeffrey Weeks explores the legacy of the first British Gay Pride Rally, held in 1972. "Popping balloons, handing out leaflets, holding hands and blowing kisses, it was a joyous and unforgettable celebration of our sexualities and our new sense of identity and belonging," he remembers.
Producer: Neil Koenig
WED 14:00 The Archers (m0003qy8)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Tuesday]
WED 15:00 Money Box (m0003r4c)
The latest news from the world of personal finance plus advice for those trying to make the most of their money.
WED 15:30 In Their Element (b0bbrc0r)
Series 3
Fluorine: Chemistry's Tiger
Many chemists have lost their lives trying to isolate the periodic table's most chemically reactive element - hence the nickname "the tiger of chemistry". Fluorine can react with almost all elements. As an acid, hydrofluoric acid, it will dissolve glass. Yet chemists have been able to tame the beast - creating remarkable and safe uses for it by utilising its reactive nature that lets it make strong bonds with other chemicals.
One in five medicines contain fluorine atoms, including one of the most widely used antidepressants Prozac, fluorinated anaesthetic, cancer medication, the cholesterol regulating drug Lipitor and the antibacterial Cipro. Though perhaps it is most famous for being added to toothpaste in the form of fluoride and in some places, drinking water. Fluoride protects our teeth from decay. But despite the benefits, it has a history of receiving a bad press. During the cold war, false allegations were made that adding fluoride to the water supply was a communist plot designed to weaken the American people. Stanley Kubrick satirised these fears in the film Dr. Strangelove in 1964.
The suspicion around fluoride has not gone away and many people feel negatively towards any tinkering with something as fundamental as our water supply. Professor Andrea Sella from University College London examines the effects of fluorine and looks to current and future uses of the element that chemists clearly respect - but no longer fear.
Producer: Louisa Field.
WED 16:00 Thinking Allowed (m0003v28)
New research on how society works.
WED 16:30 The Media Show (m0003r4f)
Topical programme about the fast-changing media world
WED 17:00 PM (m0003r4h)
Afternoon news and current affairs programme, reporting on breaking stories and summing up the day's headlines.
WED 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m0003r4k)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
WED 18:30 Fags, Mags and Bags (b092lzbk)
Series 7
Wizardy Lizardy Gubbins
The hit series returns for a seventh series with more shop based shenanigans and over the counter philosophy, courtesy of Ramesh Mahju and his trusty sidekick Dave. Written by and starring Donald Mcleary and Sanjeev Kohli.
Set in a Scots-Asian corner shop, the award winning Fags, Mags & Bags sees a return of all the shop regular characters, and some guest appearances along the way, from the likes of Sean Biggerstaff, Mina Anwar, Greg McHugh and Simon Greenall.
In this episode, local psychic and futurologist Keith Futures (Greg McHugh) finds it hard to find a buyer for his Kimodo Dragon. Meanwhile, Mrs Birkett mourns the passing of her beloved cat, Biscuits.
Join the staff of Fags, Mags and Bags in their tireless quest to bring nice-price custard creams and cans of coke with Arabic writing on them to an ungrateful nation. Ramesh Mahju has built it up over the course of over 30 years and is a firmly entrenched, friendly presence in the local area. He is joined by his shop sidekick, Dave.
Then of course there are Ramesh's sons Sanjay and Alok, both surly and not particularly keen on the old school approach to shopkeeping, but natural successors to the business. Ramesh is keen to pass all his worldly wisdom onto them - whether they like it or not!
Producer: Gus Beattie for Gusman Productions
A Comedy Unit production for BBC Radio 4.
WED 19:00 The Archers (m0003r4m)
It's a bad day for Tom and Toby has a proposal in store.
WED 19:15 Front Row (m0003r4p)
Live magazine programme on the worlds of arts, literature, film, media and music
WED 19:45 15 Minute Drama (m0003r3n)
[Repeat of broadcast at
10:41 today]
WED 20:00 FutureProofing (m0003r4r)
Reality
Reality itself is changing - how will we experience and understand reality in future? Presenters Timandra Harkness and Leo Johnson discover different ways to experience reality as technology develops and great progress is made in our understanding of how the brain works.
Visiting the designers who are creating powerful and immersive virtual worlds and characters in California, FutureProofing learns how far our everyday experience will be mediated by the virtual in the next few decades. And how far extra layers of information will augment reality for us. Leading thinkers Jaron Lanier and Karl Friston reveal the potential of this new technology and how our brains will cope with a world that is increasingly unreal in future.
Producer: Jonathan Brunert
WED 20:45 Lent Talks (m0003r4t)
The Uncertainty of Pilate
“What is truth?” Former High Court judge, Sir Paul Coleridge uses the example of Pontius Pilate to examine the moral conflict in the minds of those responsible for administering justice.
Producer: Dan Tierney
WED 21:00 Costing the Earth (m0003qy0)
[Repeat of broadcast at
15:30 on Tuesday]
WED 21:30 Black Music in Europe: A Hidden History (m0003r3c)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:00 today]
WED 22:00 The World Tonight (m0003r4w)
In depth reporting, intelligent analysis and breaking news from a global perspective
WED 22:45 Home Fire (m0003r41)
[Repeat of broadcast at
12:04 today]
WED 23:00 Bunk Bed (m0003r4y)
Series 6
Episode 3
Everyone craves a place where their mind and body are not applied to a particular task. The nearest faraway place. Somewhere for drifting and lighting upon strange thoughts which don't have to be shooed into context, but which can be followed like balloons escaping onto the air.
Late at night, in the dark and in a bunk bed, your tired mind can wander.
This is the nearest faraway place for Patrick Marber and Peter Curran. Here they endeavour to get the heart of things in an entertainingly vague and indirect way. This is not the place for typical male banter.
From under the bed clothes, they wrestle life's challenges. This week, they discuss childhood sightings of wigs, the revival of the Sedan Chair to make Britain great again and archive of film legend Bette Davis destroying an interviewer.
Produced by Peter Curran
A Foghorn production for BBC Radio 4
WED 23:15 Tom Parry's Fancy Dressed Life (b08n3wps)
Series 1
Texas
Episode 4: Texas. It's the final party of the year and Tom is off to a wedding. Can a sweepstake, some cowboy boots and a little bit of line dancing end Tom's fancy dressed year on a high?
Tom Parry is an award winning comedian, writer and actor whose credits include Miranda, Phone Shop and Drunk History among many others. As a stand up, he most recently gained critical acclaim and an Edinburgh Comedy Award Best Newcomer nomination for his debut hour 'Yellow T-Shirt'. For more than a decade he has been part of the multi-award winning sketch team Pappy's. Together they have performed 6 sell out shows at the Edinburgh Fringe, completed 4 national tours, gigged all over the world, and created, written and starred in the sitcom 'Badults' for BBC3.
Cast: Tom Parry, Ben Clarke, Celeste Dring, Gareth Pierce
Producer: Richard Morris
A BBC Studios Production.
WED 23:30 Today in Parliament (m0003r50)
News, views and features on today's stories in Parliament
THURSDAY 04 APRIL 2019
THU 00:00 Midnight News (m0003r52)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4
THU 00:30 Book of the Week (m0003r3j)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:45 on Wednesday]
THU 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m0003r54)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
THU 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m0003r56)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.
THU 05:20 Shipping Forecast (m0003r58)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
THU 05:30 News Briefing (m0003r5b)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4
THU 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m0003r5d)
A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day with Ann Memmott. Ann is a national and international adviser on autism, and main author of autism guidelines for the Church of England.
Good morning
We are nearing the end of Autism Acceptance Week. Like most families, we look forward to sharing meals or time together with friends. Unlike most families, many of our friends are autistic. Those are moments to cherish, spending time in one another’s company, communicating in our own social language and sharing perhaps a breakfast, a cup of tea, something simple and sustaining. Just as lovely to do so with non-autistic friends and family, of course.
Jesus had much to say about feeding people, and he wasn’t just talking about food. He was also talking about how we give people love, encouragement, faith, friendship, hope. This is something we have worked towards for years at the annual disability and neurodiversity conferences at St Martin in the Fields. A banquet for all, shared as friends.
That banquet for all is also something I’m writing about with a theologian friend, Helen. What does a banquet mean, for autistic people? There have been moments when some autistic people have felt what it is like to be unwelcome or excluded. Perhaps through assumption that we would have no money to donate, or that church would be too scary for us, or too incomprehensible. That surely there must be other places we could go to learn about God. Yet, there was no income check before the five thousand were fed by Jesus, no request that the autistic people go somewhere else for food. All are loved, all fed.
Lord, as we break bread and share your gifts, help us to look anew at those who share alongside us, whose place at your banquet in heaven is given by your grace, welcomed and loved as equals with other people and as cherished by you for who we are.
Amen.
THU 05:45 Farming Today (m0003r5g)
The latest news about food, farming and the countryside.
THU 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b03mzv6d)
Merlin
Tweet of the Day is a series of fascinating stories about our British birds inspired by their calls and songs.
Chris Packham presents the story of the merlin. These diminutive falcons nest in deep heather on moorland, mainly in the north and west. In winter they also hunt over open country, hillsides and coastal marshes. The male merlin or jack is our smallest falcon, about the size of a mistle thrush.
THU 06:00 Today (m0003rhz)
News and current affairs, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.
THU 09:00 In Our Time (m0003rj1)
The Great Irish Famine
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss why the potato crop failures in the 1840s had such a catastrophic impact in Ireland. It is estimated that one million people died from disease or starvation after the blight and another two million left the country within the decade. There had been famines before, but not on this scale. What was it about the laws, attitudes and responses that made this one so devastating?
The image above is from The Illustrated London News, Dec. 29, 1849, showing a scalp or shelter, "a hole, surrounded by pools, and three sides of the scalp were dripping with water, which ran in small streams over the floor and out by the entrance. The poor inhabitants said they would be thankful if the landlord would leave them there, and the Almighty would spare their lives. Its principal tenant is Margaret Vaughan."
With
Cormac O'Grada
Niamh Gallagher
And
Enda Delaney
Producer: Simon Tillotson
THU 09:45 Book of the Week (m0003rj3)
Two Weeks in November: The Astonishing Story of the Coup That Toppled Mugabe
Episode 4
A thrilling, surreal, unbelievable and sometimes even funny true story of four would-be enemies who team up to help unseat one of Africa’s longest serving dictators, Robert Mugabe.
What begins as an improbable adventure destined for failure, marked by a mixture of bravery, strategic cunning and bumbling naiveté, soon turns into the most sophisticated political-military operation in African history.
A high ranking politician, an exiled human rights lawyer, a dangerous spy and a low-key white businessman turned political fixer. By virtue of their being together, the unlikely team of misfit rivals is suddenly in position to spin what might have been seen as an illegal coup into a mass popular uprising that the world – and millions of Zimbabweans – will enthusiastically support.
The author Douglas Rogers is an award-winning journalist and travel writer who wrote The Last Resort: A memoir of Zimbabwe. He was born and raised in Zimbabwe and now lives in Brooklyn, New York.
Read by Joseph Kloska
Abridged by Polly Coles
Produced by Clive Brill
A Brill production for BBC Radio 4
THU 10:00 Woman's Hour (m0003rj5)
The programme that offers a female perspective on the world
THU 10:45 15 Minute Drama (m0003rj7)
Coach Karen's Half-Time Team Talk
Episode Four
Coach Karen is the new coach of an under-13 girls football team called the Hopperton Hoops. They're not the most successful team in the league, in fact they've never won a game. And under Karen, this record is unlikely to change.
A brand new comedy series by Harry Venning (Clare in the Community) about how a young woman with no life experience is desperate to share it with people even younger than herself.
Starring Karen Fishwick (RSC Juliet, Our Ladies of Perpetual Succour) as Coach Karen.
Episode 4: Karen and the team play away and are seduced by the luxurious dressing rooms. And sweets.
Cast:
Coach Karen………Karen Fishwick
Scarlett…………..…Eva Woodbridge
Polly…………..….....Carla Abbott
Daisy…………..…....Clara Shepherd-Thompson
Ava……..……..….....Iona Milward
Kirsty……….….…....Safia Kadri
Ajoba.....…….……..Hana Doe
Tilly……………..…....Catie Shakespeare-Kearns
Polly’s dad…...……Alex Lowe
Writer: Harry Venning
Director/Producer: Alison Vernon-Smith
A Sweet Talk production for BBC Radio 4
THU 11:00 Crossing Continents (m0003rj9)
Nepal Fights Foreign Paedophiles
Hunting western paedophiles is a priority for a new police unit tasked with safeguarding children in Nepal. Mired in poverty and still recovering from a devastating earthquake in 2015, Nepal is increasingly being targeted by foreign paedophiles who recommend it as a destination when they share child abuse tips on the dark web. In recent years, a series of western men have been charged with raping or sexually assaulting Nepali boys. For Crossing Continents, Jill McGivering follows the under-resourced police unit, hears the stories of victims and perpetrators and examines what makes Nepal so vulnerable to abuse by western men.
This programme contains descriptions of child sexual abuse which some listeners may find distressing.
Produced by Caroline Finnigan.
THU 11:30 Can Hip Hop Save Ballet? (m0003rjc)
In the world of classical ballet, black dancers are conspicuous by their absence. Eric Underwood, a former soloist with The Royal Ballet, wants to understand what might be restricting their participation.
In Amsterdam, Eric meets Michaela DePrince, born in Sierra Leone and now performing as a soloist for the Dutch National Ballet.
Misty Copeland, who became the first African American female principal dancer for the prestigious American Ballet Theatre, asks if ballet classes provide a safe space for black children.
In Chicago, Homer Bryant, The Ballet Disruptor, is fusing classical point technique with hip hop, and believes that Hiplet can help a 350-year-old artform find new audiences.
In London, Cassa Pancho and Cira Robinson from Ballet Black share their experiences of providing role models for aspiring black dancers.
Other contributors include dance critic Luke Jennings, cultural historian Theresa Ruth Howard, Precious Adams from the English National Ballet and Tyrone Singleton from the Birmingham National Ballet.
Producer: Rez Marino
A Wise Buddah production for BBC Radio 4
THU 12:00 News Summary (m0003rjf)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
THU 12:04 Home Fire (m0003rjh)
Episode 4
Eamonn knows that Aneeka has secrets but he trusts her.
This breathtakingly topical, powerful thriller by Kamila Shamsie won the 2018 Women's Prize for Fiction and was Book of the Year for all the major UK Newspapers. Home Fire is about identity, conflicting loyalties, love and politics: a book for our times.
Abridged by Sara Davies and read by Sanjeev Bhaskar.
Producer... Mary Ward-Lowery
THU 12:18 You and Yours (m0003rjk)
News and discussion of consumer affairs.
THU 12:57 Weather (m0003rjm)
The latest weather forecast
THU 13:00 World at One (m0003rjp)
Mon-Thurs: Analysis of news and current affairs, presented by Sarah Montague. Fri: Analysis of news and current affairs, presented by Mark Mardell.
THU 13:45 The Decade That Invented the Future: The 1970s (m0003rjr)
1973: Oil shock
John Browne, former CEO of BP, explores the impact of the 1973 oil shock on 20th century global politics and economics. Production restrictions by OPEC had a dramatic effect in the US where he was then working.. "OPEC’s announcement threw New York into a state of turmoil. Queues for gasoline stations ran for blocks down the street, and people would drive from station to station searching for fuel," Lord Browne recalls. "Even with their tank nearly full, they would wait for hours for a top-up. I can remember people’s frustration, which often turned to violence."
Producer: Neil Koenig
THU 14:00 The Archers (m0003r4m)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Wednesday]
THU 14:15 Drama (b08k4zw7)
The Interrogation
Neil
New series of Roy Williams' contemporary crime drama. Detective Inspector Max Matthews (Kenneth Cranham) and Detective Sergeant Sean Armitage (Alex Lanipekun) subject the main suspects of major crimes to their unique style of interrogation. Today, Max has a hunch about someone who comes in to the police station to make a victim statement. Neil's story.
Music ..... David Pickvance
Director ..... Mary Peate.
THU 15:00 Open Country (m0003rjt)
Surfing on Scotland’s North Coast
The reef break at Thurso on the rugged North Coast of Scotland is one of the best waves in Europe. Helen Mark meets Thurso's surfing community, from the pioneers who began surfing in the 1970s on empty waves, to the up-and-coming young surfers hoping to make Scotland's national squad this year.
Presenter: Helen Mark
Producer: Sophie Anton
THU 15:27 Radio 4 Appeal (m0003rjw)
[Repeat of broadcast at
07:54 on Sunday]
THU 15:30 Open Book (m0003rjy)
[Repeat of broadcast at
16:00 on Sunday]
THU 16:00 The Film Programme (m0003rk0)
Jessie Buckley
Jessie Buckley talks about Wild Rose, the story of a Country And Western singer from Glasgow, in which she stars and sings and writes her own songs. She tells Antonia Quirke what was it was like to reach the final of talent show I’d Do Anything in 2008, and why she gave up a career on the West End stage to go back to drama school.
THU 16:30 BBC Inside Science (m0003rk2)
Dr Adam Rutherford and guests illuminate the mysteries and challenge the controversies behind the science that's changing our world.
THU 17:00 PM (m0003rk4)
Afternoon news and current affairs programme, reporting on breaking stories and summing up the day's headlines.
THU 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m0003rk6)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
THU 18:30 Meet David Sedaris (m0003rk8)
Series 7
Episode 1
The globetrotting, trash-picking, aisle-rolling storyteller is back with more words of wit and wisdom.
With his sardonic wit and incisive social critiques, David Sedaris has become one of America’s pre-eminent humour writers. The great skill with which he slices through cultural euphemisms and political correctness proves him a master of satire and one of the most observant writers addressing the human condition today.
This week we hear his new story, Father Time, and extracts from his diaries.
David Sedaris's first book, Barrel Fever (1994) which included The SantaLand Diaries, was a critical and commercial success, as were his follow-up efforts, Naked (1997), Holidays on Ice (1997) and Me Talk Pretty One Day (2000). He became known for his bitingly funny recollections of his youth, family life and travels, making semi-celebrities out of his parents and siblings.
David has been nominated for three Grammy Awards for Best Spoken Word and Best Comedy Album. His latest international best-selling book is a collection of stories entitled Calypso. A feature film adaptation of his story C.O.G. was released after a premier at the Sundance Film Festival (2013). He is a regular contributor to The New Yorker and has been a appearing on BBC Radio 4 since 1996.
Producer: Steve Doherty
A Giddy Goat production for BBC Radio 4
THU 19:00 The Archers (m0003rkc)
Shula's confidence is knocked and Freddie attempts to move on.
THU 19:15 Front Row (m0003rkf)
Live magazine programme on the worlds of arts, literature, film, media and music
THU 19:45 15 Minute Drama (m0003rj7)
[Repeat of broadcast at
10:45 today]
THU 20:00 The Briefing Room (m0003rkh)
Combining original insights into major news stories with topical investigations.
THU 20:30 In Business (m0003rkk)
A Tale of Two Towns
Much has been made of the death of the high street, but some places are staging a comeback.
The government has announced this Spring a £1.6bn Stronger Towns Fund to help less well-off areas. Six hundred million pounds of that will be shared out to towns which can come up with credible plans to help their high street adapt to the rapidly changing retail environment.
So what does it take to turn a town around? In this programme, Ruth Alexander visits two towns in Cheshire - Northwich and Altrincham - which have tried two quite different approaches to see what works, and what doesn’t.
Presenter: Ruth Alexander
Producer: Elisabeth Mahy
THU 21:00 BBC Inside Science (m0003rk2)
[Repeat of broadcast at
16:30 today]
THU 21:30 In Our Time (m0003rj1)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:00 today]
THU 22:00 The World Tonight (m0003rkn)
In depth reporting, intelligent analysis and breaking news from a global perspective
THU 22:45 Home Fire (m0003rjh)
[Repeat of broadcast at
12:04 today]
THU 23:00 The Skewer (m0003rkq)
A brand new open-door topical show from the mind of broadcaster, producer and audio-fiddler Jon Holmes of Listen Against and The Now Show - with digital consultancy and audio support from the Technical Director of the relaunched Radiophonic Workshop. It’s also a radio comedy access point for a new generation of satirists who don’t write sketches, jokes and one liners, but instead channel their talents into playing around with sound.
Sketch-writing has long been the way into radio comedy but, for the new generation of satirists who don’t put pen to paper and instead beaver away on laptops using self-taught skills to toy with the news-scape, The Skewer, with it’s guerrilla approach to satire, is their new playground - bringing diverse voices together with soundscaping from a gardener, a call-centre worker and a supermarket delivery driver.
The sounds of The Skewer have been designed to be enhanced through headphones, attaching you to a late night drip of current events as they melt into your brain, evoking that feeling of drifting off but with the occasional uncomfortable sleep-twitch, as though you’ve accidentally stepped off a kerb.
Freeform, dreamlike, curious, scathing, The Skewer is the home of the new news jokers.
An Unusual production for BBC Radio 4
THU 23:15 Gyles Brandreth’s What Ho, Your Majesty? (b077jq36)
In a specially commissioned new comic story for Radio 4, the author and broadcaster Gyles Brandreth presents his very own 90th birthday gift to the Queen.
As a lifelong admirer of P G Wodehouse, Gyles has chosen to re-imagine the bygone world of gentlemen’s clubs, pan-handling politicians and helpful St James’s shopkeepers - the world of Willie Dabney, confidant of the Prime Minister and godson to Her Majesty.
Willie wants only to do the best for everybody, but his generosity gets the better of him when he is asked to run an errand for the Queen, involving a senior peer, the Astronomer Royal and a hostess gift with a difference.
A Heavy Entertainment production for BBC Radio 4
THU 23:30 Today in Parliament (m0003rks)
News, views and features on today's stories in Parliament
FRIDAY 05 APRIL 2019
FRI 00:00 Midnight News (m0003rkv)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4
FRI 00:30 Book of the Week (m0003rj3)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:45 on Thursday]
FRI 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m0003rkx)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
FRI 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m0003rkz)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.
FRI 05:20 Shipping Forecast (m0003rl1)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
FRI 05:30 News Briefing (m0003rl3)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4
FRI 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m0003rl5)
A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day with Ann Memmott. Ann is a national and international adviser on autism, and main author of autism guidelines for the Church of England.
Good morning
As we journey towards the end of world Autism Acceptance Week, my online calendar informs me that today is a day to celebrate maps, whether paper or electronic. Our family’s Surveying company uses maps as a practical part of each day, getting our team out to site, and allowing them to measure and assess. My own lifelong interest in cartography, as an autistic person, has been so useful for this. Maps can bring us together, of course, and so many of us now have Sat Navs – although the one in my car seems to think that it’s possible to drive through rivers, and has to be reasoned with.
In the Bible, Jesus, Moses, and so many others make sometimes perilous journeys. Not guided by the Ordnance Survey, but by God. Finding our path together as people of faith takes more than knowing which way is North. Trusting God to know the path ahead, to be at my side as I walk it, and sharing the load with me as I go through crises, has been such a reassurance. I cannot claim that my faith has always been strong. There have been moments when it feels like I am truly lost. But, Jesus told us of the lost sheep, and how the shepherd searches and searches until that sheep is found and brought back into safety. A comfort indeed, especially in a world where so many autistic people want to know more about faith, but do not know where to go, or who to turn to.
In all our journeying, Lord, be at our side. Help us to know your presence, and your guiding light. To take courage from following in your footsteps, and knowing we are never alone in what lies ahead.
Amen.
FRI 05:45 Farming Today (m0003rl7)
The latest news about food, farming and the countryside.
FRI 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b0378xmn)
Common Tern
Tweet of the Day is a series of fascinating stories about the British birds inspired by their calls and songs.
Michaela Strachan presents the common tern. The Common Tern is the most widespread of our breeding terns and is very graceful. It has long slender wings and a deeply forked tail with the outer feathers extended into long streamers. These features give the bird its other name, sea swallow, by which terns are often called.
FRI 06:00 Today (m0003rlc)
News and current affairs, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.
FRI 09:00 Desert Island Discs (m0003rlf)
[Repeat of broadcast at
11:15 on Sunday]
FRI 09:45 Book of the Week (m0003rlh)
Two Weeks in November: The Astonishing Story of the Coup That Toppled Mugabe
Episode 5
A thrilling, surreal, unbelievable and sometimes even funny true story of four would-be enemies who team up to help unseat one of Africa’s longest serving dictators, Robert Mugabe.
What begins as an improbable adventure destined for failure, marked by a mixture of bravery, strategic cunning and bumbling naiveté, soon turns into the most sophisticated political-military operation in African history.
A high ranking politician, an exiled human rights lawyer, a dangerous spy and a low-key white businessman turned political fixer. By virtue of their being together, the unlikely team of misfit rivals is suddenly in position to spin what might have been seen as an illegal coup into a mass popular uprising that the world – and millions of Zimbabweans – will enthusiastically support.
The author Douglas Rogers is an award-winning journalist and travel writer who wrote The Last Resort: A memoir of Zimbabwe. He was born and raised in Zimbabwe and now lives in Brooklyn, New York.
Read by Joseph Kloska
Abridged by Polly Coles
Produced by Clive Brill
A Brill production for BBC Radio 4
FRI 10:00 Woman's Hour (m0003rlk)
The programme that offers a female perspective on the world
FRI 10:45 15 Minute Drama (m0003rlm)
Coach Karen's Half-Time Team Talk
Episode Five
Coach Karen is the new coach of an under-13 girls football team called the Hopperton Hoops. They're not the most successful team in the league, in fact they've never won a game. And under Karen, this record is unlikely to change.
A brand new comedy series by Harry Venning (Clare in the Community) about how a young woman with no life experience is desperate to share it with people even younger than herself.
Starring Karen Fishwick (RSC Juliet, Our Ladies of Perpetual Succour) as Coach Karen.
Episode 5: Polly's Dad attempts a coup d'etat and the girls have to decide where their loyalties lie.
Cast:
Coach Karen………Karen Fishwick
Scarlett…………..…Eva Woodbridge
Polly…………....……Carla Abbott
Daisy…………..…....Clara Shepherd-Thompson
Ava……..……..….....Iona Milward
Kirsty……….…..…...Safia Kadri
Ajoba.....…….….….Hana Doe
Tilly……………....…..Catie Shakespeare-Kearns
Polly’s dad…...……Alex Lowe
Writer: Harry Venning
Director/Producer: Alison Vernon-Smith
A Sweet Talk production for BBC Radio 4
FRI 11:00 Out of Office (m0003rlp)
Episode 1
What do we want from work? Millions of people are now reinventing their working lives. Ruth Barnes presents the first in a new series exploring the changing world of work.
There are now five million self-employed people in the UK, it’s the fastest-growing group of workers. Sometimes it's a case of "needs must" as conventional industries collapse - but the evidence suggests that most are doing it because they want to, they see themselves as breaking free.
The internet is full of inspirational talks from the late Steve Jobs and others, exhorting us to take risks, set out on our own, make our fortune. But with the average freelancer earning only £240 a week - about half the earnings of the average employee - what is the price of freedom?
In this first programme, Breaking Free, Ruth hears from people who have reinvented their working lives, becoming taxi drivers, brewers or cleaners. She talks to David Graeber, an anthropology professor who tapped into something really big when he published his book Bullshit Jobs.
Ruth Barnes spent ten years as a producer and presenter at the BBC, covering music and culture across the national radio. She’s written and presented music documentaries for Radio 4, reported live from the Glastonbury Festival for BBC Radio 5 Live and the red carpet at the Cannes Film Festival for BBC Radio 2. In 2006, Ruth started her own online radio show The Other Woman, to showcase new music from female artists. She is three years into running her own podcast production company Chalk & Blade, an independent start-up based in East London.
Producers: Susan Marling and Elizabeth Burke
A Just Radio production for BBC Radio 4
FRI 11:30 Reluctant Persuaders (b08ljxcc)
Series 2
Just Do It
Starring Nigel Havers, Mathew Baynton and Josie Lawrence. Welcome back to Hardacre's, the worst advertising agency in London, for the second series of Edward Rowett's award-winning sitcom.
This week, the team are unexpectedly in demand. The marketing manager of nutrition company Protein Team (guest star Richard Goulding) enlists their services for a huge poster campaign, aimed at selling protein shakes to women.
Yet no sooner is their ad up - featuring a slender woman, and an even more slender bikini - than Hardacre's find themselves at the centre of a media storm over misogyny, body-shaming, and the evils of advertising.
Wracked with guilt and determined to make amends, Joe (Mathew Baynton) clashes with his older and more cynical creative director Rupert Hardacre (Nigel Havers) and accounts manager Amanda (Josie Lawrence), who are convinced that sex sells and all publicity is good publicity. But in an age of Twitter storms and third-wave feminism, are they behind the times?
An Absolutely production for BBC Radio 4.
FRI 12:00 News Summary (m0003rls)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
FRI 12:04 Home Fire (m0003rlv)
Episode 5
Eamonn has asked his father to help Aneeka's brother. Parvaiz' journey begins when Isma leaves home.
This breathtakingly topical, powerful thriller by Kamila Shamsie won the 2018 Women's Prize for Fiction and was Book of the Year for all the major UK Newspapers. Home Fire is about identity, conflicting loyalties, love and politics: a book for our times.
Abridged by Sara Davies and read by Lisa Zahra and Sanjeev Bhaskar.
Producer... Mary Ward-Lowery
FRI 12:18 You and Yours (m0003rlx)
News and discussion of consumer affairs.
FRI 12:57 Weather (m0003rlz)
The latest weather forecast
FRI 13:00 World at One (m0003rm1)
Mon-Thurs: Analysis of news and current affairs, presented by Sarah Montague. Fri: Analysis of news and current affairs, presented by Mark Mardell.
FRI 13:45 The Decade That Invented the Future: The 1970s (m0003rm3)
1974: Nixon resigns
Washington journalist Elizabeth Drew reflects on the impact of the Watergate affair and Richard Nixon's resignation on American society and politics. "It needs be understood that this was a scary period: we knew that people in the White House would take extra-legal steps to achieve their ends," she says. "We joked with dark humour about whether we were being wiretapped. We actually wondered whether our democratic system would survive."
Producer: Neil Koenig
FRI 14:00 The Archers (m0003rkc)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Thursday]
FRI 14:15 Drama (b08g5kw5)
Baller
by Nathaniel Price
Meshach's dream of playing professional football is about to come true; the money, the glamour, the fame, it's every boy's dream, so why is is he about to throw it all away?
Directed by Sally Avens
Nathaniel Price is a graduate of the MA Screenwriting Course at the National Film & Television School. As a youth player he was contracted to Crystal Palace F.C, until injury ended his ambitions to become a professional footballer. 'Baller' is his second drama for Radio 4.
FRI 15:00 Gardeners' Question Time (m0003rm5)
East Hampshire
Eric Robson and panel answer the questions from East Hampshire. Joining Eric this week are Chris Beardshaw, Pippa Greenwood and Bob Flowerdew.
Produced by Dan Cocker
Assistant producer: Laurence Bassett
A Somethin' Else production for BBC Radio 4
FRI 15:45 Short Works (m0003rm7)
Hello Stranger
An original short story specially commissioned by BBC Radio 4 by the Northern Irish author Michael Hughes. As read by Faye Marsay (Game of Thrones, McMafia).
Michael Hughes is the author of the novels 'The Countenance Divine' and 'Country', a retelling of Homer's 'Iliad' set on the Northern Irish border during the Troubles. Born in Armagh, he also teaches creative writing at Queens University Belfast.
Writer ….. Michael Hughes
Reader ….. Faye Marsay
Producer ….. Michael Shannon
FRI 16:00 Last Word (m0003rm9)
Radio 4's weekly obituary programme, telling the life stories of those who have died recently.
FRI 16:30 Feedback (m0003rmc)
The programme that holds the BBC to account on behalf of the radio audience
FRI 16:55 The Listening Project (m0003rmf)
Eddie and Stacey: Fighting Talk
Father and daughter talk about their life-long passion for boxing. She went on to become a professional boxer and win the ABA title - just like her father. Fi Glover presents another conversation in a series that proves it's surprising what you hear when you listen.
FRI 17:00 PM (m0003rmh)
Afternoon news and current affairs programme, reporting on breaking stories and summing up the day's headlines.
FRI 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m0003rmk)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
FRI 18:30 The Now Show (m0003rmm)
Series 54
Episode 7
Steve Punt and Hugh Dennis present the week via topical stand-up and sketches
Featuring Angela Barnes, Eshaan Akbar, Luke Kempner and Gemma Arrowsmith
Producer: Adnan Ahmed
BBC Studios Production
FRI 19:00 The Archers (m0003rmp)
Writer ….. Keri Davies
Director ….. Kim Greengrass
Editor ….. Jeremy Howe
Ruth Archer ..... Felicity Finch
Pip Archer ..... Daisy Badger
Josh Archer ..... Angus Imrie
Kenton Archer ….. Richard Attlee
Tony Archer .... David Troughton
Helen Archer.... Louiza Patikas
Tom Archer ….. William Troughton
Ruairi Donovan .... Arthur Hughes
Toby Fairbrother .... Rhys Bevan
Alan Franks .... John Telfer
Will Grundy .... Philip Molloy
Mia Grundy ..... Molly Pipe
Emma Grundy .... Emerald O'Hanrahan
Ed Grundy .... Barry Farrimond
Shula Hebden Lloyd .... Judy Bennett
Alistair Lloyd ..... Michael Lumsden
Jim Lloyd ..... John Rowe
Jazzer McCreary ..... Ryan Kelly
Elizabeth Pargetter .... Alison Dowling
Freddie Pargetter ..... Toby Laurence
Lily Pargetter .... Katie Redford
Johnny Philips .... Tom Gibbons
Roy Tucker .... Ian Pepperell
Russ ..... Andonis James Anthony
Tim Oatey .... Carl Prekopp
Leonard Berry .... Paul Copley
Jakob .... Paul Venables
FRI 19:15 Front Row (m0003rmr)
Live magazine programme on the worlds of arts, literature, film, media and music
FRI 19:45 15 Minute Drama (m0003rlm)
[Repeat of broadcast at
10:45 today]
FRI 20:00 Any Questions? (m0003rmt)
Katherine Bennett, Kwasi Kwarteng MP, Caroline Lucas MP
Jonathan Dimbleby presents political debate from Aerospace Bristol with a panel including the Vice President of Airbus Katherine Bennett, Brexit Minister Kwasi Kwarteng and the Green MP Caroline Lucas MP.
Producer: Lisa Jenkinson.
FRI 20:50 A Point of View (m0003rmw)
A weekly reflection on a topical issue.
FRI 21:00 The Decade That Invented the Future: The 1970s (m0003rmy)
Omnibus, Part 1
How crucial developments from this remarkable decade shaped the world we live in now.
FRI 22:00 The World Tonight (m0003rn0)
In depth reporting, intelligent analysis and breaking news from a global perspective
FRI 22:45 Home Fire (m0003rlv)
[Repeat of broadcast at
12:04 today]
FRI 23:00 Great Lives (m0003qy2)
[Repeat of broadcast at
16:30 on Tuesday]
FRI 23:30 Today in Parliament (m0003rn2)
News, views and features on today's stories in Parliament
FRI 23:55 The Listening Project (m0003rn4)
Joe and Charlie: The Relaxation of Running
Friends who met through their shared love of running talk about how it's helped them in stay in touch with the world around them. Fi Glover presents another conversation in a series that proves it's surprising what you hear when you listen.